Nano and Micro Devices Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nano and Micro Devices Center (NMDC) is a research center located at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The center forms the backbone of nanotechnology research in the university. It operates a level 4 clean room as well as several other lab facilities.
| |
| Type | Research Center |
|---|---|
| Established | 2008 |
| Chairman | Robert Lindquist |
| Director | John D. Williams |
Academic staff | 10 |
Administrative staff | 6 |
| Postgraduates | 16 |
| Location | , 34°43′22″N 86°38′19″W |
| Campus | University of Alabama in Huntsville main campus |
| Website | http://nmdc.uah.edu |
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Objectives
Facilities
The center operates a clean room that is equipped with microfabrication machines that perform thin film deposition, photolithography, dry and wet etching, and metrology measurements. It also operates a dark room for wet etching, electroplating and porous silicon fabrication. The facilities are utilized by organizations based in north Alabama. The processes performed in such a clean room level may be classified into:[3]
- Lithography: the processes under this category include the conventional UV-lithographic techniques, Electron Beam lithography, and Projection lithography.
- Material Deposition processes: under this category fall the processes of Sputtering, thermal vapor deposition, and electroplating, other techniques to deposit biological molecules and bilayer membranes include the Langmuir- Blodgett technique.
- Material Removal Processes: these include dry etching such as reactive ion etching, or wet etching such as anisotropic etching of silicon in a KOH bath.
- Surface Analysis and Characterization: such as Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Confocal Microsocopy, Ellipsometry, UV, IR, and Raman Spectroscopy, X-ray Spectroscopy, and other techniques.
- Computing