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General Equipment (Nanopatterning Cleanroom)

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Overview

A range of smaller equipment and capabilities exist within the Nanopatterning Cleanroom. The following gives a short description of the instruments. Standard operating procedures for each tool can be found at the Resources section below.

Cressington Sputter Coater: The Cressington 108 Auto Sputter Coater is used for coating samples with a thin layer of a conductive metal film. These layers are typically used to dissipate electrical charge from non-conductive samples placed in SEMs and e-beam writing tools. Our tool sputter deposits a fine grained AuPd alloy compatible with high resolution SEM imaging. We also have pure Au targets available for installation upon request.

Samco Ozone Cleaner: Ozone (O3) gas is used to clean surfaces, descum samples, and even remove resist. The Samco Ozone Cleaner contains a UV producing light bulb and molecular ozone source (which can be operated independently or together) to generate ozone which reacts with and volatilizes organic molecules on the surface of a substrate. A nitrogen purge clears the chamber of residual ozone.

Film Sense FS-1 Ellipsometer: The Film Sense FS-1 Multi-Wavelength Ellipsometer provides fast and reliable thin film measurements. The film thickness of most transparent thin films from 0 – 1000 nm can be determined. Optical constants, n & k, and other film properties can also be measured for many samples.

Vacuum Sealer: The Vacuum Sealer allows lab users to quickly and cleanly seal their samples in plastic bags prior to transport outside the lab.

Optical Inspection Microscopes: There are three general optical inspection microscopes available: a Nikon LV100ND, an Olympus, and a Vision Engineering EVO Cam II. See the Nikon page for more details on its capabilities. The Olympus microscope has up to 100X objective lenses with both bright field and dark field capability. The Olympus is kept in the wet bench room for quick inspection after chemical processing. The EVO Cam II is a low-magnification inspection microscope with 19x-151x zoom range and uses an LED ring light. A 360o rotating oblique viewer provides better 3D inspection of parts.

LatticeGear FlipScribe: The FlipScribe allows users to scribe and cleave their samples of up to 4” wafers without scribing on the top surface of the sample. The controlled manner with which the FlipScribe scribes samples allows clean and precise cleaving, eliminating the inconsistencies with hand scribing and cleaving. Cleaving tools and sample holders are also provided to assist the scribing and cleaving process.

Getting Started and Training Information

In order to become a qualified user of any of the above tools, you need to follow each of these steps in the order as listed here:

  1. Complete the process to become a lab member of SNSF and follow the instructions to activate a Badger account.
  2. Complete the process to become a Nanopatterning Cleanroom user.
  3. For Vacuum Sealer, Optical Inspection Microscopes, and LatticeGear FlipScribe: No further training is required. Follow the standard operating procedures that are by each of the tools. If you require assistance, please contact staff.
  4. For Samco UV-Ozone Cleaner, Film Sense Ellipsometer, and Cressington Sputter Coater: Please send an email to staff so you can be qualified on Badger. No further training is required. Follow the standard operating procedures that are by the tools. If you require assistance, please contact staff.

Auto-disqualification: Badger will auto-disqualify you on the Samco UV-Ozone Cleaner, Film Sense Ellipsometer and Cressington Sputter Coater if you do not use them in a 3 year period. This is to keep an up-to-date record of active, qualified users of these tools in Badger. To get re-qualified, please email nano-snpcleanroom-staff@lists.stanford.edu.