Microfabrication Shared Facility Annual Report Managing ... · Microfabrication Core Facility Annual Report – FY18 5 Shared Facility Equipment or Instrumentation The microfabrication

Microfabrication Core Facility Annual Report – FY18

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FY18 Shared Facility Annual Report

Microfabrication Facility

Electrical and Computer Engineering

M&M Building – Rooms 420 – 432

Microfabrication Shared Facility Annual Report

Managing Director: Chito Kendrick Faculty Director: Paul Bergstrom Department Head: Dan Fuhrman

Administration: Lisa Hitch

Dr. Chito

Kendrick

Managing

Director

Prof. Paul

Bergstrom

Prof. Daniel

Fuhrmann ECE HOD

Lisa Hitch

Admin. Assistant Michele

Kamppinen Admini.

Assistant


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Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Purpose and Mission Statement ........................................................................................................ 4

MFF Staff ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Shared Facility Equipment or Instrumentation .......................................................................... 5

432 – Thin Film Deposition ............................................................................................................ 5

431 – Plasma and Characterization ............................................................................................ 6

430 – Utilities ....................................................................................................................................... 8

429 – Cleanroom ................................................................................................................................ 8

428 – Thermal Processing + Advanced Deposition .............................................................. 9

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) ................................................................................................ 10

424 – Electrical Characterization .............................................................................................. 10

420 – Darkroom ............................................................................................................................... 11

Operational Summary ........................................................................................................................ 12

Users ..................................................................................................................................................... 12

System Usage .................................................................................................................................... 15

Lab Safety Inspection ..................................................................................................................... 16

Financial Summary .............................................................................................................................. 18

MFF Visibility Summary .................................................................................................................... 18

Development .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Equipment .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Facility ................................................................................................................................................. 19

Summary and Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 19


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Abstract In FY18, the microfabrication facility supported 22 principle investigators (4 external) and 44 users with their research. The amount of internal research that uses the MFF is continuing to reduce. One of the main limitation that researchers are facing is the inability to do sub-micron lithography. To solve this issue Dr. Kendrick has applied for a DURIP grant to acquire a RAITH 150 2 electron beam lithography system - $1,496,605. If this grant is successful Dr. Kendrick believes this will act as a catalyst for research in the MFF, as researchers will be able to do features down to 7 nm. Financial situation FY18:

Laboratory expenses and salary amounts have stabilized since the transition from the last managing director.

Usage of the MFF continues to decrease, with the majority of the usage from external groups

The MFF indexes has a total deficit of $14K for FY18

Funds are available in overhead indexes and D96399 to reduce the deficit to zero ($15K was requested in the FY18 shared facility funds). This cannot be a long term

plan as overheads should be used to grow the facility

Main changes in FY18: Filmetrics 3D profiler was installed and is fully operational

Photoplotter was brought back online, allowing Mylar masks to be fabricated with critical feature size down to 25 µm

Fabrication of the ALD system has now transitioned to process optimization and this will be required for any material that users want to deposit. An issue with coating

area and uniformity need to be resolved

The sample stage in the CAIBE was rebuild this year due to past use of hard water

for cooling, this led to the buildup of calcium deposits and etching the aluminum

gears


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Purpose and Mission Statement Michigan Technological University microfabrication facilities primary purpose is to provide the necessary systems and supplies to support the faculty with their research to develop a world respected research group. This will ensure the continued growth of their research programs and to a larger extent; continue the growth of Michigan Technological University status as a leading university in Michigan, the United States and the world. To achieve this the following will be provided:

Educate students in the processes and systems used in micro/nanofabrication

Provide adequate training for each process and system and ensure process planning

to reduce wasted funds and time

Provide a safe and friendly working environment

The facility will operate as a non-profit facilities, where use fees cover the cost of

running and maintaining the facility; additionally a core inventory of chemicals and

deposition materials will be maintained and also covered by use fees

Provide a use fee structure that is competitive with other micro/nanofabrication

facilities for similar processes and systems

Maintain the core process systems to ensure minimal down time

The microfabrication is unable to 100% guarantee a process, but the microfabrication staff will try their best to help develop processes that will have a high level of

reproducible and acceptable yield

Continued expansion of the core systems to meet the requirements of current and

future users

Allow the facility to be used as leverage to hire faculty that are leaders in their field

MFF Staff Chito Kendrick - Managing Director – Dr. Kendrick’s primary responsibility is to oversee the running of the microfabrication facility, including and limited to:

Training of users

Repairing and maintaining systems

Stocking lab supplies

Extracting monthly usage

Keeping a safe and clean facility

Processing for external users when required

As well as continuing to develop the facility to allow for world leading research. Paul Bergstrom - Faculty Director – Prof. Bergstrom is Dr Kendrick’s direct supervisor. Dan Fuhrman - Department Head – Prof. Fuhrman has final sign off as the facility is run out of the electrical and computer engineering department. Lisa Hitch and Michele Kamppinen – Administration – Both help with the reallocation of monthly usage and aid in setting up purchase orders, confirming orders and other financial transactions.


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Shared Facility Equipment or Instrumentation The microfabrication facility is made up of seven rooms (432, 431, 430, 429, 428, 424, and 420) on the fourth floor of the M&M Building. Each room has been developed to focus on a specific, or complementary, process essential for the fabrication samples with micro and nanoscale features.

432 – Thin Film Deposition This space is utilized for the deposition of thin films from metals to dielectrics. Currently the MFF supports two sputter deposition systems, two electron beam deposition systems, and a Parylene coater.

Systems Primary Process

Perkin Elmer 2400-

8J Sputter HfOx, SiNx

Perkin Elmer 2400-

6J Sputter Au, Cr, ITO, SiO2

Fredrick electron beam deposition

High vapor pressure metals – Ag, Al, Cr etc.


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Denton electron beam deposition

Low vapor pressure metals – Au, Cr, Ni, Pt, Si, Ti etc.

PDS 2010 LabCoater Parylene-C Deposition System

Parylene

431 – Plasma and Characterization This room has tools related to plasma etching of semiconductors, dielectrics and polymers. Additionally, there is a suite of tools for characterizing thin films. The current tool set includes three etching tools, 3D profiler, and Ellipsometer. A Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) system and Frontier semiconductor measurements FSM 900TC stress measurement system were rebuilt this year and are undergoing qualification processes before being available to the microfabrication facility users.

Systems Primary Process Trion Phantom II

RIE/ICP Etch

System

Etching of dielectrics and polymers (No metals)

March Instruments

Jupiter Plasma

System

Etching of dielectrics and polymers (No restrictions)


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Ion Beam Etcher (currently offline due to water cooling issues leading to damage to sample stage)

Currently used only for etching iron garnet films

Systems Primary Process Filmetrics 3D Optical Profiler (acquired 2017)

Surface scanning to produce 3D images to extract topology information – e.g. surface roughness, etch depths, deposition thickness

JA Woollman V-VASE Spectroscopic Ellipsometer

Measurement of thin film optical properties

FTIR Surface analysis of

thin films


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FSM 900TC

Wafer curvature measurement system to determine stress

430 – Utilities In addition to the process systems, the microfabrication facility has several utilities that are required to maintain the operation of the facility as well as for the specific processes done within the facility. This includes a 500 gallon deionized water generation system that supplies the needs of the microfabrication facility, additional laboratories on the 4th and 3rd floors of the M&M Building, and faculty in other departments. The microfabrication facility also have an in house nitrogen generator for supplying the process systems with nitrogen, as well as used for drying samples. Due to the specific water cooling requirements for several of the vacuum pumps and process systems a Haskris Chiller has been installed for systems in the deposition and plasma rooms.

429 – Cleanroom The cleanroom is broken down into two regions. The main region is the 500 ft2 soft wall cleanroom that is HEPA filtered to ensure a class 1000 process environment. This region is primarily used for photolithography with a repeatable feature size down to 1 µm. The region around the soft wall cleanroom, gray space, has chemical storage as well as additional fume hoods.

` EV Group EV620 UV

Photolithographic

Alignment System

Laurel Technologies Photoresist

and Polymer Spin Station Nikon Optiphot 200

Wafer Inspection Microscope and CCD

capture camera


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Vacuum Oven RCA Wet Bench

Spin Rinse Drier Dicing Saw

428 – Thermal Processing + Advanced Deposition The thermal processing facilities are designated for annealing, diffusion of dopants in silicon, and the dry oxidation of silicon.

Mellen 200 mm 3-zone High Temperature Furnace for Oxidation (left) and Dopant Diffusion (right). 50 mm Furnace for annealing samples (center)

AG Heatpulse 610 Rapid Thermal Processor


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Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) The current deposition systems in the microfabrication facility includes sputtering and electron beam deposition. These systems are utilized for deposition of metal layers and dielectrics, however they have several limitations that ALD will overcome:

Ultrathin films down to a single monolayer due to its self-limiting growth process

Highly conformal coatings on high aspect ratio structures with negative and positive side walls or even overhangs

Uniform deposition over an area of 8”

Growth of complex thin films with unique electrical and optical capabilities

Biologically compatible thin films for passivation

Low temperature processing

Industry standard tool that will allow users experience on a system that they may use in a position once they graduate

ALD uses a cyclical and self-limiting process where a monolayer is formed by depositing a precursor and then oxidizing to finalize the first complete cycle. This is then repeated until the desired thickness is reached. Alternative precursor can be used for each cycle leading to the growth of complex thin films. To bring this capability to the microfabrication facility, Prof. Joshua Pearce, purchased an atomic layer deposition process chamber from a five chamber Eureka 2000 cluster tool. Additional funds were obtained from David Reed to build this system into a working ALD. Dr. Kendrick has been working on the ALD since FY16 and initial hafnium oxide thin films have been deposited in FY18. However deposition diameter is only 50 mm (should be able to achieve 200 mm), there is an issue with the residence time of the precursor during each cycle. The issue could be several possibilities:

Incorrect reactor pressure – this is set by the throttle valve, but there is not a

continues gas flow to ensure the system has the right pressure

Not using proper ALD valves – An ALD valve is specially made to have a continuous purge gas going to the reactor and then a popper valve above the precursor is opened

to allow for a small amount of precursor to enter the gas stream and on to the reactor.

Our system does not have ALD valves and means we have been running the system

by pulsing precursor into the reactor without the continuous gas flow.

Even with this uniformity issue users can start to use the system. Currently, Kathryn Perrine from the Chemistry Department is planning iron oxide experiments this summer. Dr. Kendrick will continue to develop the HfOx for general usage and look at what other materials would be good for the users of the MFF.

424 – Electrical Characterization Post fabrication analysis can be completed in the electrical characterization facility. A wire bonder and micromanipulator probe station are available to contact samples with contact pads down to 150 µm. Therefore, allowing for current voltage and capacitive voltage measurements to be collected with the analysis systems.


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Wire bonder Probe station attached to a Keithley 4200 Parametric Semiconductor Characterization Testing System MPSMU and capacitive voltage analyzer. A CCD camera was added from the cleanroom microscope to allow users to save images and also for students to more easily observe their samples.

420 – Darkroom The final facility is the darkroom that offers the ability to do thick film, surface mount, and film processing. Originally there was the capability for transparency mask writing, however the system has been offline due to communication issues that have yet to be resolved.

Reflow stage

Reflow oven

Pick and place system


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Photo plotter – minimum feature size 25 µm

Operational Summary Users The user base for the microfabrication facility is built up from principle investigators from seven departments and four external groups (Figure 1). In total, twenty two principle investigators used the microfabrication facility to support their research. From the twenty two principle investigators research groups, forty four unique users – faculty, undergraduates, graduates, and postdoctoral scholars – used the microfabrication facility during FY18 (Figure 2). The number of students makes up only 42% of the users, which means each principle investigator is either doing the research or only supporting one student on average.

Figure 1 – The microfabrication facilities user base comes from seven departments and four external companies with the total number of principle investigators totally 22.

Electrical and Computer

Engineering18%

Chemical Engineering18%

Physics16%

Material Science and Engineering

5%

Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

16%

Chemistry2%

Biomedical16%

External User9%


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Figure 2- The breakdown of the 44 unique users that used the microfabrication facility in FY18.

Users that used the microfabrication facility, in FY18, were working on: Fabrication of polymer waveguides

Lab-on-chip bio sensors

Super luminescence structures

Magneto-optics

Microfluidics

Two-dimensional materials

Plasmonic structures

Electrically active adhesive surfaces

Student42%

Post Doc2%

Assitant Professor20%

Assoicate Professor

13%

Professor15%

Research Faculty8%


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System Usage Shown in Figure 3 is the monthly usage for all the systems in the MFF during FY18.

Figure 3 – Usage of all the MFF systems for FY18


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FY17 FY18 Diff. % Diff.

PDS2010Coater (M&M 432) 960 249 -711 -74%

PE24000-8J 8 inch Sputter (M&M 432) 1677 4908 3231 193%

PE24000-6J 6 inch Sputter (M&M 432) 5746 10612 4866 85%

Fredrick e-beam (M&M 432) 4063 1658 -2405 -59%

Denton e-beam (M&M 432) 8403 4926 -3476 -41%

TRION Etch (M&M 431) 2222 2072 -150 -7%

TePla CAIBE (M&M 431) 1126 220 -906 -80%

March Etch (M&M 431) 2959 6846 3887 131%

JA Wollam Ellipsometer (M&M 431) 10303 6310 -3993 -39%

3D Profiler (M&M 431) 0 5820 5820 581970%

Rapid Thermal Processor (M&M 428) 85 73 -12 -14%

2 inch furnace (M&M 428) 13330 7041 -6289 -47%

Mellen Furance (M&M 428) 3382 240 -3142 -93%

Dicing Saw (M&M 429) 1253 3516 2263 181%

Vacuum Oven (M&M 429) 12485 0 -12485 -100%

Chemical Processing (M&M 429) 8585 8461 -124 -1%

Wafer Inspection Microscope (M&M 429) 4998 3232 -1766 -35%

Polymer Spin Station (M&M 429) 4349 3012 -1337 -31%

EV620 Aligner (M&M 429) 5974 3315 -2659 -45%

Wire Bonder (M&M 424) 430 280 -150 -35%

Compared to FY17, the FY18 usage has been down for most systems and the majority of this usage is from external users that Dr. Kendrick has been doing processing for. In the past the reduction in usage has been due to PIs ending grants, this is still an ongoing issue, but now to restart the usage upgrading systems is also key. Already several users are going to the University of Minnesota NanoCenter to use their atomic layer deposition system (ALD), deep reactive ion etcher (DRIE), and electron beam lithography (EBL) system to support their research. We have already been working on installing an ALD system and this is currently being optimized for growth, while for a DRIE process we have developed a recipe using the TRION; however it is not ideal and a dedicated system should be purchased in the future. A DRIE is not the top priority as it has limited value and even with a DRIE we cannot achieve sub-micron features which most PIs now need for their research. Therefore, Dr. Kendrick has pulled together a group of six faculty with department of defense (DOD) funding (or research that might be of interest to the DOD) to apply for funding for an EBL via a DURIP or MRI proposal, this will be cover in a section below.

Lab Safety Inspection Safety is critical in the microfabrication facility. Users are dealing with vacuum systems, high pressurized gas bottles, chemicals that are strong acids, bases, and oxidizers. This concoction makes for a very dangerous environment if the user is not trained properly or the facility does not maintain a standard required by the university.


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Issues that were brought up in the FY18 safety inspection were http://labcliq.com/summary/report.cfm?insp_id=75&site_id=87: Contact Facilities to schedule inspection and certification of the fume hood: This was a reminder for David Dixon to organize a company to certify the face velocity of the wet benches in the MFF. This will be done later in the summer semester

Laboratory should be clean and well organized for safe and efficient use: This has been an ongoing issue in 428 with clutter and storage of excess equipment. Dr. Kendrick has been working on installing shelves in 430 and 428 to clean up this space, as well as either disposing of or selling surplus equipment that still has some value. This should be significantly better next inspection. Proper machine guarding is required for the safety of personnel using the equipment: It was highlighted that several systems in 431, CAIBE, FSM wafer curvature system, and thermal evaporator, did not have all their covers on them. This is being corrected and may require some to be modified to ensure a proper fit. The FSM wafer curvature system and thermal evaporator have been completed. Flammable liquid storage cabinets are required if greater than 10 gallons of flammable liquids are being stored or used in any one room: An issue was highlighted that items had been place on top of the flammable cabinets, these have been removed to the MFF utilities room 430 An MTU emergency response poster is required at the entrance to all laboratories: A couple of the response posters were not printed with yellow so they have been properly printed in color now. Smaller items may be potential tripping hazards should not be stored on floors of laboratory: As part of the ALD build there are several boxes and items around the system that need to clean up and that is being resolved now with the clean of the entire 428 room.

http://labcliq.com/summary/report.cfm?insp_id=75&site_id=87


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Financial Summary Shown in Figure 4 is the financial summary for the microfabrication facility for the last nine years.

Figure 4 - Summary of the last nine fiscal years for the microfabrication facility, 2/3 of the user fee revenue was from external usage.

MFF Visibility Summary To bring awareness to faculty, and students, what capabilities the MFF has Dr. Kendrick has been involved with giving tours for classes, visiting scientists, as well as attending department seminars.

Material Science and Engineering – Marketing tour for Steve Kempe

Materials Science and Engineering – Summer Youth Program, 2 groups of k-12

students that do a metal deposition, photolithography and wet etching to produce a

silicon wafer with the MTU logo. Individual samples are cut by the students as a

keepsake. (https://abc10up.com/2017/07/25/students-experience-day-

microfiber/)

Electrical and Computer Engineering – Alumni tour

School of Technology – Tour for Dr. Yu Cai – “New Technology Seminar”

Electrical and Computer Engineering – Tour for Dr. Paul Bergstrom MEM class ( EE 4240 Introduction to MEMs)

$(80,000)

$(60,000)

$(40,000)

$(20,000)

$-

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 F18

User Fee Revenue Transferred in Salary Lab Expenditures Carryfoward Ending Balanace


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Biomedical – Tour for Dr. Smitha Rao MEMs class (BE 4670 - Micro & Nano

Technologies)

Photonics group – Tour for visiting companies (Dr. Middlebrook)

Dr. Joan Redwing, Pennsylvania State University, – Tour Visiting Women & Minority Lecturer/Scholar Series invited by Dr. Kendrick

Forestry Faculty Tour

Consulting Firm Tour

Attending - MEEM microfluidics group, MSE seminar, ECE Seminar, Physics Seminars, Chem Sci Seminars

To occur in FY19 Dr. Kendrick will be giving a seminar to the material science department on the MFF. He will also be organizing other seminars for Physics, Chemistry, and Mechanical Engineering.

Development

Equipment One of the main capabilities lacking in the MFF is the ability to do sub-micro lithography. The current photolithography system at the Michigan Tech. has the ability to do a minimum feature size of 1 µm as the incident source is a 365 nm board spectrum mercury lamp. This limitation is effecting the progress of current projects, as well as preventing researchers from exploring new areas of research. Dr. Kendrick pulled together a group of six faculty (Durdu Guney (ECE), Bruce Lee (BioMED), Miguel Levy (Phys), Christopher Middlebrook (ECE), Jae Yong Suh (Phys), and Paul Bergstrom (ECE)) to apply for a DURIP equipment proposal through the Department of Defense. The proposal is requesting $1,496,605 to fund the acquisition of a RAITH 150 2 Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) system to be installed at Michigan Technological University and be operated and maintained by the Microfabrication Shared Facility (MFF). The RAITH 150 2 would allow for patterning down to 7 nm and has the ability to do stitch free writing, required by Dr. Middlebrook and Dr. Levy for their waveguide research. Should this grant be unsuccessful Dr. Kendrick plans on working on a NSF major research instrument (MRI) proposal to go after the same system, however the MRI program requires a 30% cost share, unlike the DURIP which has no cost share. Dr. Kendrick is also investigating other lower cost systems that might allow for sub-micro features.

Facility The MFF received a $50K donation in FY18 from Leroy Keranen. These funds are going towards redeveloping the entrance to the cleanroom and also increasing the space under the HEPA filters. Dr. Kendrick is also looking at possibly rearranging the facility to try and bring the labs into less space instead of being in 6 different rooms. This may exceed the limits of the funds, but we are trying to develop a long term plan if further funds become available.

Summary and Conclusions The microfabrication facility has seen a drop in internal usage for FY18. Dr. Kendrick plans on using FY19 to develop a stronger relationship with the departments that use the MFF to bring in old and new users. A new 3D profiler was installed in 431 and has helped bring in some new users.

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Microfabrication Shared Facility Annual Report Managing ... · Microfabrication Core Facility Annual Report – FY18 5 Shared Facility Equipment or Instrumentation The microfabrication