The new 3D profiler (https://www.filmetrics.com/opticalprofilers/profilm3d) has arrived and is installed. The system will allow for measuring the surface profile of samples to extract feature heights and surface roughness. Contact Dr. Kendrick (cekendri@mtu.edu) if you would like to learn more about the system.
The Microfabrication Core Facility (MFF) was host to 15 students from the Summer Youth Program (SYP) on the 18th of July (and a further more on the 25th of July), aged from 12 – 14 years. The students learned about the fabrication of silicon based devices and how silicon wafers are produced. Additionally, they had hands on experience in the cleanroom and used the photolithography process to transfer a pattern on a photomask to a silicon wafer. The pattern had a scale on it from 100 um (diameter of a human hair) to 1 um (diameter of bacteria) to allow the students to understand the scale that MFF users work at. The students also hand cleaved silicon wafers to produce dies of gold Michigan Technological University (MTU) logos as a keepsake for their time in the MFF.
The last group of five students gowned up and ready to do the photolithography process.
Left – The wafers after the photolithography process, Right – Gold MTU logos ready to cleave
If you are interested in what the MFF can do regarding teaching/research/K-12 contact Dr. Chito Kendrick, cekendri@mtu.edu or microfabrication@mtu.edu.
Adrienne Minerick, a professor of chemical engineering and associate dean of
the College of Engineering at Michigan Tech, has spun off Microdevice Engineering, Inc.
to market her portable blood-typing technology. Together with Mary Raber,
assistant dean of academic programs in Michigan Tech’s Pavlis Honors College,
Minerick is developing a handheld point-of-care device to type ABO-Rh blood and
hematocrit (blood cell concentration) in five minutes. The device is being engineered
to be as easy to use as a blood glucose meter.
The lab on a chip devices being used by Adrienne Minerick’s cop many are being
fabricated using the Microfabrication Core Facility.
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8986/aa7291/pdf
The National Science Foundation’s National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Program (http://www.nnci.net/) has set up a network of nodes to support nano-related research and education. Headquartered at the University of Minnesota, the Midwest Infrastructure Corridor (MINIC) is one of those nodes. MINIC has national reach, supporting work in Nano-bio, 2D materials, and other emerging fields. However MINIC also has a responsibility to support and enable other nano and micro fabrication laboratories in the upper Midwest. To accomplish this latter goal MINIC has created the Northern Nano Lab Alliance (NNLA)(http://www.minic.umn.edu/nano-lab-alliance). Currently made up of eight labs, this organization meets regularly to share best practices, and develop new methods to improve lab operation.
MINIC is pleased to announce a new Training Grant Program to members of the Northern Nano Lab Alliance. This program is intended to train researchers and provide low-cost access to tools that are not available at their home labs. This may be used to enable various research projects or to provide participants with desirable skills. The basic rules are laid out as follows:
MINIC will provide program participants tool access at 50% of the current academic rate (http://www.nfc.umn.edu/assets/pdf/access_rates_academic.pdf). This subsidy is limited to $1500 per year per participant. Participants are encouraged to carry out the processing work during a visit to maximize the training experience. Where this is impractical, remote training will be available on a limited set of tools. Contact the NNLA coordinator (cibuzar@umn.edu) for a current list.
Limitations of ultra-thin transparent conducting oxides for integration into plasmonic-enhanced thin-film solar photovoltaic devicesGwamuri, J., Vora, A., Khanal, R.R. et al. Mater Renew Sustain Energy (2015) 4: 12. doi:10.1007/s40243-015-0055-8
This study investigates ultra-thin transparent conducting oxides (TCO) of indium tin oxide (ITO), aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) to determine their viability as candidate materials for use in plasmonic-enhanced thin-film amorphous silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) devices.
Read more at Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy.
Welcome to the new microfabrication core facility website, it has been a long time coming and hopefully it will help answer most questions you have about the microfabrication core facilities capabilities, access, and policies. This website would have not been possible with out the hard work by Sue Hill.
If you would like a link posted to your personnel website or research group please let me know and I can have you added to the Networking section. This is not only to highlight our users, but to also allow for past, present, and future users to find collaborators at Michigan Technological University.