Institute of PhotonicsSemiconductor microfabrication facilities

Overview and access options

The Institute of Photonics operates an industry-standard cleanroom suite. It contains fabrication, test and assembly equipment for manufacture of micro-scale optoelectronic and photonic devices.

The equipment is naturally available for external access on appropriate terms, consistent with recent funder mandates. Please contact Dr Benoit Guilhabert for further enquires. Concerning academic access, we especially welcome enquiries from independent investigators holding or seeking substantial funding, and recognize that pump-priming work may sometimes be needed to achieve this. Current conditions mean that responses on commercial access will prioritize organisations with existing links to Strathclyde.

In academic projects, the cleanroom toolset detailed below has been used to fabricate custom:

  • GaN micro-LED arrays
  • bio-medical devices
  • diamond and sapphire micro-optics
  • componentry for hybrid integrated photonics

Past examples of commercial usage include that by the University spin-out company mLED Ltd. in the period 2010 to 2015 leading up to its trade-sale acquisition by a US major.

Major pieces of equipment

Chemical workstations

Housed in a photolithography ISO 7 for segregated chemical processing. It includes:

  • photoresist
  • wet etching
  • solvents
  • vacuum & nitrogen ovens.

Suss MJB4 mask aligner

For contact lithography down to 1 micron resolution.

Direct laser writing lithography

Heidelberg DWL66+ down to 0.3-micron resolution. Includes gray-scale lithography.

Oxford PECVD

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition.
For silicon oxide deposition.

Plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition

Sentech Instruments. With:

  • Hafnium oxide
  • Silicon oxide
  • Titania and Alumina films

CVC sputter

with 8-inch Gold, Titanium and Aluminium targets (under update).  

Auto500 sputter

Equipped with 2-inch Gold, Titanium and Aluminium targets.

Auto306 electron beam metal deposition

With Indium and Indium Tin Oxide sources. Other sources on request.

Ferrotec electron beam metal deposition

TemescalBJD-2000 with Gold, Titanium, Palladium, Aluminium and Nickel sources.

Rapid thermal annealing

Using Jipelec JetFirst100. Temperatures up to 1000 °C.

Inductively Coupled Plasma Etch

Using STPS Multiplex ICP in Cl2 and BCl3 chemistries plus oxygen, nitrogen and argon (inc. laser reflectometer).

Plasma dry-etching of GaN, SiC, diamond and sapphire.

Inductively Coupled Plasma / Deep Reactive Ion Etch

Twin system using Sentech Instruments Si500 DRIE. For oxygen, nitrogen and argon, fluorinated (SF6, C4F8, CF4, CHF3) and chlorinated (Cl2, BCl3) chemistries.

Reactive ion etch with fluorine chemistry (CHF3, CHF4)

Using Oxford Instruments PlasmaLab 80+ for:

  • Plasma dry etching of dielectric and polymers
  • Sputter etching of metal layers also available (Al, Ti, Au and Pd)

Reactive ion etch with dedicated SF6 chemistry

Using Oxford Instruments PlasmaLab 80+ for:

  • Plasma dry etching of Silicon and Silicon Nitride
  • Sputter etching of metal layers also available (Al, Ti, Au and Pd)

Matrix plasma asher

Denier barrel asher Pico

Parylene deposition

With Speciality Coating Systems PDS 2010.

Additive nano- lithography

Nanoink NLP 2000 dip-pen.

Dicing and Packaging

  • Disco DAD3220 automatic dicing saw
  • Kulicke and Soffa wedge wire bonder
  • MPP IBond 5000 ball and wedge wire bonder
  • Fineplacer flip-chip bonder with 5 micron X-Y positioning accuracy
  • Voltera Nova printed electronics platform

Scanning metrology equipment

  • Dektak3 stylus profiler
  • AlphaStep IQ (KLA) stylus profiler
  • Park XE-70 atomic force microscope: true non-contact, profilometer and conductive modes

Optical metrology equipment

  • Filmetrics spectroscopic reflectometer (thin film analyser)
  • Wyko NT1100 optical profiler
  • Hitachi S3000 scanning electron microscope
  • Leica and Nikkon optical microscopes

Electrical metrology

  • Signatone probe station with Agilent network analyser: 4 parallel channels, high-voltage (100V) and low-current (pA) ranges.
  • Wentworth probe station with HP 4155A network analyser (1 channel)
  • Signatone with high-frequency response analyser (Agilent 5230A, modulation: 10 MHz-40 GHz, two probe manipulators)
  • Ossila 4 points conductivity system