MICROTECHNOLOGY
Various facilities are available within the Sensors Research Laboratory (SRL) and Centre for Nanotechnology & Microengineering to design, fabricate and test Microsensors, MEMS and Smart devices. A list of these facilities is given below:

Design, Simulation and Analysis Tools

A comprehensive suite of software tools exist for this area, including:

• Sensor artwork (L-Edit, Autocad, Cadence)
• Microelectronic devices (Tanner tools, Cadence, XILINX, MAGIC)
• PCB production (EASYPC, ORCAD, Cadstar v7)
• Simulation (PSPICE, HSPICE, Electronic Workbench, ACSL, MATLAB, Solidis, ISE, MEMS PRO, MEMSCAD, Medici, FEMLAB)
• Programmable devices (PLDs, FPGAs, micros)
• Data analysis (MATLAB + various toolboxes, Sigmaplot, Pirouette, UNISTAT)

Cleanroom Facilities Available 

Deposition of sputtered materials (e.g. gold and platinum), thermally evaporated materials, wide range of resists, electroactive polymers, Langmuir-Blodgett films

Further facilities include:

• Isotropic and anisotropic silicon etching
• Reactive ion etching and PECVD
• Optical photo-patterning
• Single-sided and double-sided pattern alignment
• Focused and showered ion beam milling (centre)
• On-wafer testing, wafer dicing, wire-bonding, chip packaging and chip testing

Measurement Facilities Available

 

In addition to the fabrication facilities listed above a number of measurement techniques are available including:

• Step profiles (Talystep, Nanostep)
• Scanning tunnelling, atomic and lateral force microscopies
• Microstructure: XRD, SEM, TEM, X-ray reflectance, Scanning Auger, Mossbauer spectroscopies
• X-ray interferometry
• Ultrasonic characterisation
• Electrochemical characterisation: cyclic voltammetry, rotating disk electrode and computer-controlled potentiostatic methods (University of Southampton)