 ASU
NanoFab
A true partnership between the business community
and Arizona State University exists with ASU NanoFab.
ASU NanoFab is the new name for the collection of
nanofabrication tools and expertise available at ASU for faculty and
industry. ASU NanoFab is operated by the Center for Solid State Electronics
Research, an interdisciplinary center that has led ASU’s research efforts in
nanoelectronics for more than 20 years.
Each year, about 150 students and 50 faculty use ASU
NanoFab’s facilities. In addition, companies that do not have their own
equipment can work in the ASU facilities for a fee. Most work thus far has
involved local companies, but ASU researchers are also collaborating with
other universities as well as government laboratories including Sandia
National Laboratories, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Air Force
Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M.
“ We would like to work more nationally, to provide
services to a national audience,” said Trevor Thornton, director of ASU
NanoFab. “We hope to become a southwest regional center of excellence to
start.”
In support of this goal, Frederic Zenhausern, director of
the Center for Applied NanoBioscience; Stephen Phillips, professor of
electrical engineering; and Thornton recently received a $375,000 major
research instrumentation award from the National Science Foundation. This
grant allows ASU to purchase two pieces of equipment, an alignment tool and
a bonding tool, which will enhance the university’s capability to create
biochips. More and more ASU researchers are developing chemical and
biological sensors, threat detection sensors, and other tiny devices that
combine biological systems with conventional electronics.
Traditional nanofabrication tools are intended for use
with silicon. Biochips, however, require pumping liquids or gases around
surfaces and performing chemical processes—both best done on plastic or
glass. These new tools allow researchers to bond plastic or glass patterned
with channels to silicon wafers containing circuits.
The alignment tool places plastic wafers on top of silicon
ones very precisely, lining up channels to within a micrometer. The bonding
tool squeezes the silicon and plastic together using high pressure and
temperature. This creates a very smooth bond at the atomic level. The
bonding tool can also be used for nanoimprinting, which uses a patterned
‘stamp’ to create tiny channels in plastic. In this case the two are not
squeezed so tightly together that they become bonded, just enough to
transfer the pattern.
These tools build on the capabilities of two etching
instruments purchased with another NSF major research instrumentation award
two years ago. They are built by EVG, a global company with an office in
Tempe. ASU will work with EVG to develop new applications and processes for
the tools in biochips, nanofluidics, and bioelectronics. In return, EVG will
help ASU maintain the equipment and keep it up to date. |
