COVID-19 UPDATE:
Research Resources Center (RRC) cores are back on campus to provide services and access to shared equipment (when possible), there are new guidelines issued by each core due to COVID19. Please reference each core’s new user guidelines before requesting services, projects, or scheduling equipment. All questions or inquiries must be sent by email to respective core.
The Nanotechnology Core Facility (NCF), is a versatile device fabrication facility accessible to both academic, non-profit, and industrial researchers. Located in Engineering Research Facility (ERF) building on the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) campus, the NCF enables research by providing access, training, service and process guidance on fabrication and characterization equipment. As a research and development laboratory, the NCF is dedicated to the application of integrated circuit and fiber optic technology to improve manufacturing methods for MEMS/Nano, BioMEMS, Microfluidic, Electromechanical, Mechanical, Chemical, Optical, Photonic and multi-functional devices, some of which have previously been made by more traditional techniques.
The NCF staff consists of a full-time laboratory manager, and graduate students who assist in training new users along with 22 associated research faculty members at UIC. The laboratory consists of a 3000 square foot clean room subdivided into five bays providing workspaces for various functions including physical and chemical vapor deposition process (PVD, CVD), wet and dry etching, surface characterization, and top and bottom lithography. With over two and a half million dollars of equipment installed, approximately one and a half million of which has been used to acquire new equipment at the cutting edge of microfabrication technology, the NCF provides strong capability within the thrust areas of MEMS processing, analysis, and development. Unlike highly automated industrial production equipment, the NCF is flexible and multipurpose in function.
Equipment available in the NCF provide capabilities in Photolithography, Thin Film Deposition (metals, semiconductors, and dielectrics) etching, sample characterization (electrical, optical, and surface), dicing and lead attachment.
Mission
The primary function of the NCF is to provide R&D expertise and service support to the research efforts of both University faculty and external commercial companies in the wide-ranging areas of MEMS/NEMS, electronic and photonic material device design and fabrication. Using all aspects of advanced processing techniques, the NFC also provides instrument training on the processes such as photolithography, thin film deposition by electron beam, plasma enhanced deposition and etching and more. It also provides characterization techniques including XRD, SEM, AFM, Optical and Step Profilometry, Ellipsometry, Dynamic Laser Scattering, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Rapid Thermal Processing and Scanning Acoustical Microscopy. Rudimentary device packaging services such as laser marking, wafer saw cutting and wire bonding can be provided by request.
Please visit the detailed information at the our website HERE.
All new NCF Users are required to take and pass the closed book safety exam to access the NCF clean room. Users may simply come to the NCF Office Suite, Rm. 3064 ERF, any day between the hours of 9am and 3:30pm. There is no time limit to complete the exam. One of the staff will grade the test and inform the User of the results. All visitors who wish to enter and monitor other users must also pass the exam before access is granted. Once the exam is passed, Users will receive the clean room RFID access key and an outside door key. The key must be later returned, once the User’s UIC I-card is programmed into the door card swipe locks.
Name | Role | Phone | Location | |
An, Seyoung | Director | (312) 355-1259 | syan11@uic.edu |
Room 3064, Engineering Research Facility
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Ghiacy, Arian | Graduate Research Assistant | (312) 996-0827 | aghiac2@uic.edu |
Room 3064, Engineering Research Facility
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Perez, Alejandro | Graduate Research Assistant | (312) 996-0827 | apere72@uic.edu | Room 3064, Engineering Research Facility |
Singhal, Anuj | Graduate Research Assistant | (312) 355-8040 | asing48@uic.edu | Room 3064, Engineering Research Facility |
Karpourazar, Negar | Graduate Research Assistant | (312) 996-2018 | nkarpo2@uic.edu | Room 3064, Engineering Research Facility |
Hours | Location |
Staffed: M - F, 9 AM - 5 PM Instrumentation available 24/7 with prior permission |
842 W. Taylor St., ERF Building RM 3064 Chicago, IL 60607 |
Name | Role | Phone | Location | |
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NCF Admin |
Administrative and Contract Related Questions
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ncfadmin@uic.edu
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