This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This MRI-R2 grant will fund the acquisition of a state-of-the-art Vistec EBPG5200ES electron-beam nanolithography instrument that will be a centerpiece of the Penn State Nanofabrication Laboratory's mission to transform diverse materials, including semiconductors, complex oxides, ferromagnets, superconductors, polymers and molecules, into advanced nano-devices and systems. This flexible and versatile nanolithography system will enable direct patterning of complex features on substrates up to 200 mm in diameter and up to 10 mm thick, with a demonstrated sub-10 nm pattern resolution and sub-15 nm stitching and overlay accuracy. In addition, the instrument will open fundamentally new avenues in nanolithography because it will be equipped with a z-lift stage that allows software-controlled dynamic stage height adjustments for patterning on substrates with extreme topography and curvature. This unique capability will create research and development opportunities in diverse fields such as nano-electronics, nano-biotechnology, and nano-optics. By way of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, the instrument's new features, flexible interface and remote internet operability will offer a fresh approach to education, training and outreach that is readily accessible to a broad and diverse population of users from academia, industry, and government.
Layman Summary: This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology are creating entirely new research and development opportunities in diverse fields such as electronics, optics, energy, life sciences, and medicine. Nanolithography plays a central role in these advances because it is one of the primary techniques used to create structures with features that are as small as 10 nm. This MRI-R2 grant will fund the acquisition of a state-of-the-art Vistec EBPG5200ES electron-beam lithography instrument that will be a centerpiece of the Penn State Nanofabrication Laboratory. By way of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, this system will be used to transform diverse functional materials, including semiconductors, ferroelectrics, ferromagnets, superconductors, polymers and molecules, into complex integrated nanodevices and systems. In addition, it will open fundamentally new avenues in lithography because it will be equipped with hardware and software for direct nanopatterning on substrates with extreme topography and curvature. This unique capability will enable groundbreaking research in nanotextured surfaces to prevent coagulation in artificial artery grafts as well as optical metamaterials for perfect optical mirrors, lenses, and cloaking devices. The instrument's new features, ease of use, flexible interface and remote internet operability will offer a fresh approach to education, training and outreach that is readily accessible to a broad and diverse population of users from academia, industry, and government.
The Penn State Nanofabrication Laboratory, as an NSF National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Node (NNIN) site, is an open access national user facility that helps scientists and engineers from academia and industry to advance the frontiers of nanoscale science and engineering. The laboratory's mission builds on core research strengths at Penn State University to establish strategies for integrating diverse materials - semiconductors, complex oxides, superconductors, ferromagnets, polymers and molecular systems - into micro and nanoscale devices.
This project proposes the acquisition of a Vistec EBPG5200ES advanced electron beam nanolithography instrument that will play a central role in this laboratory's mission. The equipment has stateof-the-art performance that will be critical to more than 20 ongoing and future projects in basic science and engineering, primarily funded by NSF. The instrument is capable of direct patterning of features on substrates having a variety of sizes and thicknesses, with demonstrated sub-10 nm pattern resolution and sub-15 nm stitching and overlay accuracy. In addition, the instrument will open qualitatively new avenues in nanopatterning because it will be equipped with a z-lift stage that allows software-controlled dynamic stage height adjustments for patterning on substrates with extreme topography and curvature. This unique instrumental aspect - not currently present at any other national user facility - will enable projects such as nanotextured surface engineering of cylindrical blood conduits to prevent coagulation in blood-contacting medical devices and the design of optical metamaterials by nanoscale patterning on curved precision optical components. The Vistec instrument is modular in form and function and is designed to be readily upgradable as the technology improves or as the need arises over the estimated 15-year lifespan of the system. Intellectual merit: The proposed instrument will be used by investigators from diverse disciplines (electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering, materials science, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine) to tackle problems of imminent concern in their respective fields. These encompass topics in mesoscopic physics (e.g., mesoscopic transport in novel superconductors, graphene and nanowires, magnetization control in single and interacting nanomagnets), nanoelectronics (e.g., deep submicron thin film transistors, semiconductor nanowire electronics), nanophotonics (e.g., coherent spin dynamics in photonic molecule lasers, photonic crystal design of nanophotonic lasers) and nanobiology (e.g., miniaturized implantable renal assist devices). All the senior personnel who will use the instrument have established track records of carrying out high impact research. Broader impact: The instrument's ease of use, flexible interface, and remote (internet) operability will help forge new directions in education, training and outreach in advanced nanofabrication technology at the graduate, baccalaureate, associate, and post-degree professional levels. These efforts will include modular lithography tutorials, remote demonstrations, technical operations and user certification training courses. The Penn State Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and several minority-serving institutions, including the City College of New York, University of Puerto Rico, Texas A&M, have already established mechanisms for enhancing research and training opportunities for women and under-represented minorities through the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduatesprogram. These programs will benefit from exposure to the instrument?s capabilities with introductory tutorials and demonstrations on nanofabrication and mentor-supervised usage. The instrument will also be made available to the Penn State Advanced Technology Education program and partner institutions, which include many minority serving community and technical colleges. Finally, with the assistance of NNIN external liaisons and Vistec, the instrument?s internet-based interface will be used to develop a new "remote hub" model that will assist external users at hubs to design and implement remote projects. This scheme will start with existing partners in academia (e.g., CCNY) and industry, and will then be extended to other venues for far-reaching national impact.
This project acquired a Vistec EBPG5200ES advanced electron-beam nanolithography instrument that was installed in the Penn State Nanofabrication Laboratory, which is one of the fourteen NSF National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Node (NNIN) sites. The installed instrument is enabling direct patterning of features on substrates having a variety of sizes and thicknesses, with demonstrated sub-10 nm pattern resolution and sub-15 nm stitching and overlay accuracy. In addition, the tool is equipped with a z-lift stage that allows software-controlled dynamic stage height adjustments for patterning on substrates with extreme topography and curvature, which is opening new avenues in nanopatterning of novel devices and components. The system is being actively used by over 40 internal and external investigators from diverse disciplines –electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering, materials science, physics, chemistry, biology and medicine– to conduct high-impact research and development in areas such as mesoscopic physics, nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, and nanobiology. The installed Vistec instrument is modular in form and function and is designed to be readily upgradable as the technology improves or as the need arises over the estimated 10 year lifespan of the system. Broader impact: The instrument’s ease of use, flexible interface, and remote (internet) operability is forging new directions in education, training and outreach in advanced nanofabrication technology at the graduate, baccalaureate, associate, and post-degree professional levels. These efforts include modular lithography tutorials, remote demonstrations, technical operations and user certification training courses, and research experiences for undergraduates. In collaboration with the NSF National Nanocomputation Network (NCN), the instrument’s internet-based interface is being used to develop a new "remote hub" model that will be hosted NanoHUB.org to assist external users to implement remote projects.
