This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This award supports the renovation and modernization of approximately 2,900 square feet of space within the University of North Texas' (UNT) Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART), located in the university's Discovery Park (about 4.5 miles north of the main campus). As part of CART, UNT will create a modern, model facility, called the UNT Nanofabrication Analysis and Research Facility (NARF), which is to be an open-access "one-stop-shop" for advanced device fabrication and analysis across multiple length and time scales. The renovations will consolidate currently spatially distributed, advanced characterization and analysis instruments; upgrade the space to include high speed cyber connectivity permitting remote access and control of these instruments; and integrate this space with a clean room and technology incubator.
Intellectual Merit: NARF will use "open system design" architecture to maximize collaboration and shared use of equipment, "integration for fabrication" to maximize entrepreneurial activities characterized by co-location of a clean room and technology incubator, and a "community/school-friendly" setting, where researchers share results and explain their work in real-time or via distance to visitors. The facility will host a unique trio of tools consisting of a dual-beam focused ion beam instrument, a high resolution transmission electron microscope, and a local electrode atom probe, capable of true atomic scale analysis of the structure and chemistry of materials, as well as many other advanced instruments, into direct proximity of one another. NARF will foster fundamental research involving nanoscale characterization and analysis applied to a wide variety of materials systems and devices, and will allow for the first time at UNT, true 3D characterization of the nanoscale structure and composition of specific components and failure sites in semiconductor devices, as well as interfaces in hybrid materials for aerospace, biomedical, and energy-related applications.
Broader Impacts: One of the primary impacts enabled by NARF will be the research training of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as post-docs and external researchers from industry, in the use of sophisticated characterization and analysis equipment. NARF will provide researchers a range of different equipment under one roof and allow them to appreciate the novel research possibilities afforded by these various techniques. Such an impact is not possible if the equipment is isolated and located at geographically scattered locations across the campus, as it is currently.
: Remote Access, Visualization, and Public Engagement The University of North Texas (UNT) has renovated and modernized its existing Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) into a modern, unique facility by consolidating currently spatially dispersed advanced characterization and analysis instruments, upgrading the space to include cyber network tools, and by integrating the CART space with a clean room and technology incubator; thereby creating the UNT Nanofabrication Analysis and Research Facility (NARF) - an open-access "one-stop-shop" for advanced device fabrication and analysis across multiple length and time scales. The project research outcomes and education activities that address intellectual merit and broader impacts are discussed below. Intellectual Merit: This renovated facility occupies ~5000 sq. ft. of research space employing an "Open system design" architecture to maximize collaboration and shared use of equipment, "Integration for fabrication" to maximize entrepreneurial activities characterized by co-location of clean room and technology incubator, and a "community/school-friendly" setting, whereby students and other researchers have opportunities to share the results and explain their work in real-time or via distance. The renovated facility hosts a unique trio of tools consisting of a dual-beam focused ion beam instrument, a high resolution transmission electron microscope, and a local electrode atom probe, capable of true atomic scale analysis of the structure and chemistry of materials as well as many other advanced instruments, into direct proximity of one another. UNT research employing this facility has already led to significant fundamental insights into atomic and nanoscale phenomena in aerospace structural materials, attracting a multi-million dollars contract from the Air Force, and is also playing a critical role in the development of a novel atomically precise manufacturing process (DARPA). Other UNT projects that have benefited from the renovation include molecular electronics, OLEDs, nanowires/nanotubes PVD and CVD of ceramic and metallic nanostructured thin films, organic nanocomposites, bio-inspired products, and nanomechanics which have been extensively supported by NSF CMMI and DMR. This renovated facility also has cyber infrastructure and mounted IT network devices to increase collaborative, interdisciplinary programs between researchers located at the different UNT campuses. The renovation and development of the NARF facility, using ARI-R2 funding, has substantially improved research and training of undergraduate/graduate students and postdocs in advanced structural and hybrid aerospace materials; design, synthesis and characterization of devices based on molecular electronics; chemical synthesis of nanoparticles, quantum dots, nanotubes and nanowires; and surface engineering of coatings for various applications. Broader Impacts: The renovated NARF is already having a substantial impact on undergraduate and graduate education in the nano-sciences and technology. The facility has been redesigned, under the ARI-R2 project, to maximize external collaborations with industry, national labs, and, academia at the regional, national, and, international levels via the installation of cyber-connectivity. Secondly, the close proximity of this facility to UNT’s technology incubator for start-up companies makes it ideally suited for technology transfer activities. Thirdly, educational outreach has been maximized via an IT platform, designed for the visiting public, using glass-walls, interactive video, and interpretation by researchers and graduate students. Several recent activities since the completion of renovation, such as ASM Materials Camp (July 2013) have involved teaching high school students, many of whom were women and underrepresented minorities, an overview of different aspects of sciences and engineering and its contribution to society. Other examples include tours given by UNT Eagle Ambassadors to high school students and their parents, where most of the visitors have no or very limited background in the physical sciences and engineering. To help facilitate the tours, the renovated facility has been designed to have glass-walls with interactive monitors to show real-time demonstrations to the public. Since the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex has a large Hispanic population, many of these families are from underrepresented groups. Additionally, the characterization equipment in the renovated facility has been instrumental in attracting UNT junior and senior undergraduate students for various research/senior design projects.
