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Nanofabrication Facility

The ASRC Nanofabrication Facility undertakes collaborative multidisciplinary projects centered around creating novel devices and interfaces. Examples of past and ongoing projects include miniature electrical circuits for quantum computing applications, microfluidic devices to create lab-on-chip platforms, microneedle arrays to interface with individual cells, micro electromechanical pressure sensors,  nano-coatings, and many others. The possibilities are virtually endless!

To create these devices we routinely use a variety of lithographic techniques that produce patterns which span eight orders of magnitude: from several nanometers to centimeters in size.

These patterns are subsequently used to either deposit materials, such as metals, glasses, or ceramics, or to etch these materials with nanometer precision.

The facility is also supported by an imaging suite, that consists of a cryogenic TEM for life sciences, a materials science TEM, a training TEM, and a dual beam SEM / FIB / Nanomanipulator system for sample preparation. For users, the facility provides an opportunity to carry out hands-on research with some of the world’s most sophisticated instruments for the fabrication and characterization of materials at the micro and nanoscale.

Mission Statement

The Nanofabrication Facility is a highly collaborative research space located on the ground floor of the Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY. The facility is home to dozens of interdisciplinary research teams from many diverse sectors of academia and industry. Our mission is to facilitate scientific discoveries and development of new technology by providing both mentorship and access to a state of the art nano-manufacturing environment. We are also passionate about enhancing the quality of science education in New York City. We partner with local educational institutions to develop curricula and find new and creative ways to share our enthusiasm for STEM with the next generation of New Yorkers.

Seed Grants

two researchers in cleanroom suits working in the deposition bay of the nanofabrication facilityThe NanoProject Seed Grant program was created to address the infamous catch-22 of academic research: you need preliminary data to get funded, yet you also need funding to acquire the preliminary data. The program provides researchers with limited access to the facility in order to collect data/make a device that will be used to either finish an experiment that is almost ready for publication or for a grant proposal.

  • The total fabrication costs incurred for a single NanoProject cannot exceed $1500.
  • NanoProjects may be performed either by the researchers themselves or in collaboration with Nanofabrication staff.
  • NanoProject Seed Grants are reviewed by an internal committee, and are awarded based upon equipment and staff availability at the discretion of the Nanofabrication staff.

Apply online for a NanoProject Seed Grant »

Please note: Due to the high demand for equipment use, a maximum of ten NanoProject Seed Grants will be awarded per academic year.

Complete the online application to become a user of this and other ASRC facilities.

Become a User

Upcoming Event - Elionix Workshop: June 6th - June 7th

Mark your calendars! June 6th and June 7th, we will be visited by Lukas Stampfer Ph.D., an Application Engineer from STS-Elionix. Some of you may already know Lukas, as he helps us debug and solve issues on our two tools, and is an expert on helping with CAD preparation that minimizes write issues. He will be available to work with ASRC users to solve issues that you may have, and to talk with you about optimizing your designs and writing of your devices.

We will schedule some sessions that will be accessible at ASRC and Zoom, as well as learn techniques directly at the tools. The following is a list of potential topics.

  1. Basic CAD and File prep with WECAS
  2. Advanced file prep with Beamer (Available at Columbia CNI)
    1. Multipass
    2. Feature Sorting
    3. Circles and Parallelograms
    4. Field Placements
  3. Optimizing writing time
  4. Setting up global and local alignments
  5. Manual and Automatic heightmaps
  6. Exposing on substrates with bad reflectivity
  7. Beamer tricks of all kinds

Please email nanofab@gc.cuny.edu with any other topic suggestions. We will update here in the next newsletter and on Slack as we finalize the schedule.

Sign up to attend the Nanofab Elionix Workshop

Sign Up for Workshop

Facility Details

Join

After completing the online application to become a user of the facility there are a few more steps to becoming a user:

  1. Sign up for the ASRC Nanofab Facility Newsletter.
  2. Complete the EHOS lab safety training.  Training is conducted over Zoom by Thomas Dickson (tdickson@gc.cuny.edu).
    Date Time Meeting ID/Pass Code
    Tuesday, May 2 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM 840 6358 5325/142250
    Thursday, May 18 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM 825 3458 5563/694824
    Tuesday May 30 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM 821 0505 1203/630521
  3. Review the Lab Manuals and Policies.
    • Lab Manual – Rules of Conduct and Use
    • Lab Manual – Safety
    • Policy for Suspension of Access and After-Hours Access
  4. Complete the Cleanroom Orientation.  Orientation is conducted once a week in person by the Jane Vogel.  Users must sign-up for orientation by 12:00PM the day before the scheduled orientation.
  5. Download badger, click on New Member?, fill out the form and then set a password.  Badger accounts will be approved once all submitted forms have been processed and approved.
  6. Get an ASRC ID.
  7. Contact the appropriate staff member to schedule tool training.

Usage Rates

Rates effective March 5, 2023

Internal Academic (CUNY) Members

  • Monthly Cap: $1,800 per month
  • Daily Access Fee: $10 per day with a maximum charge of $150 per month

External Academic Members

  • Monthly Cap: $2,000 per month
  • Daily Access Fee: $15 per day with a maximum charge of $200 per month

Back End Processing

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Wire Bonder West Bond Wire_Bonder_454647E 25 75 125
Dicing Saw Disco Dicing_Saw_DAD3220 25 75 125
Film Frame Wafer Mounter Ultron Systems Tape_Mount_UH114 0 0 0
UV Curing System Ultron Systems UV _Curing_ UH102 0 0 0

Deposition

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Atomic Layer Deposition Ultratech Cambridge NanoTech ALD_Fiji 36 108 180
PECVD Oxford Instruments PECVD_SYS100 45 135 225
Ebeam and Thermal Evaporator AJA International Ebeam_Evap_O8E 38 114 190
Ebeam and Organics Thermal Evaporator AJA International Organic_Oxide_Ebeam_Evap 38 114 190
Sputtering System AJA International Sputter_O8 30 90 150
Thermal Evaporator AJA International Thermal_Evap_O3TH 15 45 75
Sputter Coater Cressington Scientific Instruments Sputter_Coat_108A 38 114 190

Etching

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Chlorine ICP Etcher Oxford Instruments ICP_Cl_SYS100 48 144 240
Fluorine ICP Etcher Oxford Instruments ICP_Fl_SYS100 48 144 240
DRIE Etcher Oxford Instruments DRIE_FL_SYS100 48 144 240
Reactive Ion Etcher Oxford Instruments RIE_NPG80 45 135 225
Plasma Asher PVA TePla Plasma_Asher_ION40 30 90 150
UV Ozone Cleaner SAMCO UV_Ozone_UV2 25 75 125
Vapor HF Etcher SPTS Technologies VaporHF_Primaxx 25 75 125
Xenon Difluoride Etcher SPTS Technologies XeF2_Etch_E1 25 75 125

Lithography

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Electron Beam Lithography – 50keV Elionix EBL_Elionix 60 180 300
Electron Beam Lithography – 100keV Elionix EBL_Elionix 50 150 250
3D Lithography System Nanoscribe 3DLitho_GT 36 108 180
Mask Aligner EV Group Mask_Aligner_EVG620 30 90 150
Photo Resist Spinner Brewer Scientific Photo_Spinner 20 60 100
Ebeam Resist Spinner Brewer Scientific EBL_Spinner 20 60 100
Non Standard Materials Spinner Brewer Scientific Other_Spinner 20 60 100

Metrology

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Scanning Electron Microscope FEI SEM_NovaNano 35 105 175
Atomic Force Microscope Bruker AFM_Dimension 35 105 175
Surface Profilometer Bruker Stylus_Prof_Dektak 22 66 110
Optical Profilometer Bruker Optical_Prof_GT-I 20 60 100
Ellipsometer J.A. Woollam Ellipsometer_VVase 25 75 125
Thin Film Analyzer Filmetrics Reflectometer_F20 0 0 0

Thermal Processing

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Furnace – Thermal Oxide Tystar Furnace_Thermal_Oxide 25 75 125
Furnace – Anneal Tystar Furnace_Anneal 25 75 125
Furnace – LPCVD Nitride Tystar Furnace_Nitride 30 90 150
Furnace – LPCVD TEOS Tystar Furnace_TEOS 30 90 150
Rapid Thermal Annealer MPT RTA_600S 20 60 100

Chemical Hoods

Equipment Manufacturer Badger Name Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Resist Hood Air Control Spinner_Hood 0 0 0
Development Hood Air Control Developer_Hood 0 0 0
Solvent Hood Air Control Solvent_Hood 0 0 0
HF/Piranha Hood Air Control HF_Piranha_Hood 0 0 0
Metal/Caustic Etch Hood Air Control Caustic_Hood 0 0 0
RCA Cleaning Hood Air Control RCA_Hood 0 0 0
Spin Rinse Dryer OEM Group SRD_470S 0 0 0

Staff Time

Staff members may, depending on their availability, perform some fabrication processes for members upon request.  Staff members do not generally have time available to develop full processes for members.  Members will be charged for both tool time and staff time.

Equipment Academic Rate ($/hr) Start-Up Rate ($/hr) Industry Rate ($/hr)
Staff Time 100 300 500

Additional Items

Item Cost Unit
SU-8 Developer $16.63 500 ml
Remover PG $22.88 500 ml
Gold E-Beam Evaporation $0.85 1 nm
Platinum E-Beam Evaporation $0.45 1 nm
Palladium E-Beam Evaporation $0.95 1 nm

Training

For training requests, please email the tool owner listed below.

Review related SOPs and chemical safety data sheets (SDS) before your training.

Orientations are held weekly.

Ebeam Lithography Sam (sroberts@gc.cuny.edu)
Ebeam Evaporator Sam (sroberts@gc.cuny.edu)
Sputter Sam (sroberts@gc.cuny.edu)
RIE/ICP/DRIE Salam (selhalabi@gc.cuny.edu)
PECVD (Oxford) Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
ALD Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Mask Aligner Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Nanoscribe 3D Lithography Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Stylus & Optical Profilometer Maya (mnair@gc.cuny.edu)
AFM Maya (mnair@gc.cuny.edu)
FEI SEM Maya (mnair@gc.cuny.edu)
Ellipsometer Maya (mnair@gc.cuny.edu)
Plasma Asher Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Vapor HF/XeF2 Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Furnace Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Gold Sputter Coater Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Dicing Saw Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Wire Bonder Shawn (skilpatrick@gc.cuny.edu)
Photo and EBL Spinners Jane (jvogel@gc.cuny.edu)
UV Ozone Cleaner Jane (jvogel@gc.cuny.edu)
Chemical Hoods Jane (jvogel@gc.cuny.edu)
Schedule clean lab orientation and chemical hood training online »

Policies, Procedures and Resources

Equipment Access and Reservations

Instrument Policies and Operating Procedures

After-Hours Access

Chemicals and MSDS

Loss of Facility Access

Facility User Tools (Badger, Slack, Shared Drive)

Safety

Other Policies

Cost Adjustment Requests

Fill out the Cost Activity Adjustment Request Form to request a correction to our records to make sure that you are not billed incorrectly for lab activities. Form must be submitted within one week of the charge in question.

Publication Attribution

When publishing or presenting results derived from staff and services in ASRC Nanofabrication Facility, please use the following acknowledgement:

“This work was performed in part at the Nanofabrication Facility at the Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.”

Communications

Coming soon

For more information, please contact:

Nanofabrication Facility
Advanced Science Research Center
City University of New York
85 St. Nicholas Terrace
New York, NY 10031

Email: nanofab@gc.cuny.edu

Facility Staff

Sign up for the ASRC Nanofab Facility Newsletter to stay up to date on news and events affecting users.

Nanofab Newsletter Sign-up