Compound Semiconductor Processing Facility

Function

Provides a research environment for hands-on fabrication of novel structures for fundamental investigations of new compound semiconductor materials, devices, and circuit concepts. Also, provides a service facility for electron-beam lithography, scanning electron microscopy, and fabrication of devices and circuits.

Description

The facility mostly consists of a 2750 ft² clean room area (Class 10,000) with HEPA filtration, temperature/humidity control, and an independent air handling system with single-pass capability. A full-time technician is assigned to the clean facility for maintaining the equipment, training new users, and assisting the hands-on users on specialized runs. State-of-the-art microwave and optoelectronic devices are processed in the clean facility using gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, and indium phosphide material systems. Lines with feature size as small as 20 nm can be fabricated with a Raith electron beam microscope, located in a separate vibration-free area.

Instrumentation

Principal capabilities include:

• Standard photolithography: photoresist spinner and bake ovens, microscope, mask aligners operating in the mid-UV and deep-UV (DUV) range, and a DUV flood exposure system.
• Metallization-e-beam evaporation for standard metals.
• Dry etching-reactive ion etching (RIE), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and plasma etching.
• Silicon nitride deposition-plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
• Fine line patterning via electron-beam lithography.
• Scanning electron microscopy.
• Other capabilities-contact alloying, profilometer, rapid thermal annealing (RTA), annealing furnaces, and gold plating.