Equipment List

Lithography

• 2 Karl Suss MA6 top and bottom side aligners for contact printing (Vacuum, hard and soft contact and proximity modes are supported.) Mask plates from 3.5-7 inch and substrate sizes from 1 cm square to 4 inch can be accommodated. Resolution in thin film resists down to .9 micron can be achieved. The newer machine can also do bond-alignment.
• Karl Suss SB6 bonder capable of pieces or 4 inch substrates for anodic or thermocompression bonding with programmable temperature, force and voltage.
• 2 Headway programmable spinner capable of up to 6 inch substrates with speed control down to 100 RPM for thick resist and ramp control for stress reduction.
• Miscellaneous bake ovens with purge capability and temperatures to 250°C.
• Miscellaneous programmable hot plates for baking and annealing. Ramped bakes are possible for materials such as SU 8.
• High Temperature (up to 1000°C) nitrogen-purged muffle furnace for organic or spin-on film curing and hardening

Dry Etching

• Plasma-Therm FDRIE DSE II silicon plasma etcher with etch rates of 5-10 micron/minute and selectivities to resist and most hard masks >20:1.
• Plasma-Therm SLR 770 ICP deep silicon etcher with etch rates of 2-4 microns/minute and selectivities to resist and most hard masks >20:1.
• Plasma-Therm SLR 770 ICP Cl etcher for aluminum and III-V etching with Cl2, BCL3, CH4 and HBr etch capability. Typical etch rates for GaAs and InP are up to 1 micron/minute.
• Fluorine based Reactive Ion Etching for anisotropic etching of silicon dielectrics using Oxford 80 Plus and Technics Micro RIE 800. Typical etch rates for silicon dielectrics are ~1000 Ang/min.
• STS AOE Advanced Oxide Etcher for deep etching (>50 microns) of oxide with high selectivity to resist and silicon and fast etch rate (>2200 Ang/min). Machine is also capable of anisotropic etching of ceramics.
• Custom XeF2 vapor etcher for isotropic etching of silicon with high selectivity to resist, oxide and many other common materials used in microfabrication with piece or 4 inch wafer capability. Etch rates of up to 1 micron/minute are possible.
• Oxygen plasma asher, barrel reactor type.(Tegal 421).
• Matrix 105 single wafer high rate, low damage downstream stripper with strip rates >1 micron per minute.
• Logitech PM5 polisher/grinder for substrate thinning and polishing (pieces up to 4 inch). Semiconductors, glass and many metals may be polished or lapped.

Metallization 

• CHA Mark 40, 6 pocket e-beam evaporator cryo pumped to mid E-8 range, with deposition rate control, 24-4 inch wafer rotating lift-off dome, and chamber heater.
• 2nd CHA Mark 40, 6 pocket e-beam evaporator cryo pumped to mid E-8 range, with deposition rate control, 24-4 inch wafer rotating lift-off dome, and chamber heater. Also includes a swing out source with thermal evaporation capability and with reactive (oxygen) deposition capability.
• E-beam evaporation : Al, Au, Ti etc.; 4 hearth, Sloan 1800 with substrate heat & rate thickness control, cryo-pumped to low E-7 range.
• CVC 601: 3 target sputtering system (2 DC and 1 RF) with sputter etch capability.
• Small SEM sputter coater (Denton II) for SEM thin film conductor deposition

Thermal Processing & Deposition

• Al or gold sinter in ambient controlled furnace tube (400-500°C).
• RTP 610 capable of up to 6 inch substrates with either TC or Pyro closed-loop feedback and software (windows) controlled for dedicated Si processing.
• RTP 650 capable of up to 6 inch substrates with either TC or Pyro closed-loop feedback and software (windows) controlled for dedicate III-V processing .
• Dry & Wet oxidation and anneals up to 1100°C for 3 and 4 inch substrates (TCA capability).
• LPCVD undoped polysilicon (600-620°C) for 3 and 4 inch substrates with dep rates of 0.7µM/hr.
• LPCVD silicon nitride (~780°C) using NH3 and SiCl2H2 reactions.
• High temperature (1300 Deg C) clean furnace with O2/Ar capability for oxidation & anneals (6 inch wafer capable).
• LPCVD low temperature (~450°C) oxide, LTO, undoped with dep rates of >1µM/hr.
• Boron Nitride solid source doping process for p+ Si formation
• Specialty Coating Systems’ 2010 Parylene vacuum deposition system

Plasma Deposition

• PlasmaTherm 790 PECVD reactor for depositing low temperature (~300°C) films of silicon nitride, silicon oxide and amorphous silicon.
• STS Multiplex CVD deposition system for high rate, low stress dielectric deposition with doped film capability (Phos). Deposition rates for oxide of >2000Ang/min Low stress nitride with stress<1E8dynes/cm2 can be deposited. Stress is controlled by frequency mixing.

Other

• Tousimis 915B Supercritical Dryer capable of pieces up to 6 inch substrates using CO2/methanol mixture.
• Porous Silicon Etch bath with illumination and bias capability.

Metrology

• Hitachi S-4700 cold field emission SEM with 6 inch automated stage and EDAX X-Ray elemental analysis capability. System has integrated backscatter detector and resolution down to 2.5 nm @ 1 KV and 1.5nm @ 15KV.
• FEI Nova 600 Nanolab DualBeam SEM/FIB (Scanning Electron Microscope / Focused Ion Beam). Link
• Dektak 8 Surface Profilometer with 100mm scan, extended vertical range to 1 mm, 3D analysis and stress measurement software. System can also use nanotips for profiling high aspect ratio structures
• Dektak 6 Surface Profilometer with 100mm scan, and extended vertical range to 1mm for rapid profiling.
• SCI Filmtek 2000 spectrophotometer for measuring thickness and refractive index of multiple films including SOI, porous silicon and III-V film stacks.
• M&M probe station (6 inch wafer capable) connected to HP 4145 Parametric analyzer for low frequency device characterization.
• Tencor Alpha Step 200 profilometer for measuring step heights from 100 Å to 160 µm.
• Prometrix Omnimap RS-35 4 point probe for mapping sheet resistances.
• 2 Nanospec 210 computers controlled Thin Film Measuring System Systems for measuring thin semitransparent films such as polyimide, photoresist, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, polysilicon etc.
• Gaertner L116B automatic ellipsometer (632.8nm) with variable angle of incidence under Windows 95 control for measuring thickness and refractive index of very thin films.
• Miscellaneous optical microscopes with variable magnification to 1000X and 3 Nikon Optiphot microscopes with DIC, dark field and bright field optics.
• Digital imaging microscope for taking micrographs
• Digital focussing microscope for measuring deep trenches or thick patterned films.
• Flexus 2320A film stress measuring system.