About the Facilities
Princeton University offers top-of-the-line scientific research facilities that welcome both external and internal users. Three of the largest core facilities are housed within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). A central mission of the SEAS core facilities is the education, research, and training of students. These core facilities are part of Princeton Materials Institute, a premier center for materials science and education due to its unique integration of long-term, curiosity-driven research, high-impact innovation, and long-standing engagement with industry. At these core facilities, the user can fabricate, integrate, and characterize a range of materials.
MNFC: Fabrication
MICRO/NANOFABRICATION CENTER
The MNFC is a ~ 18,000 sqft clean room with ISO 5, 6 and 7 space. The MNFC has over 70 processing and metrology tools and had over 200 users from internal and external academics, government, and industry. Our partnership with the state of New Jersey has provided a low entry barrier for start-up companies eligible for state funding to use these facilities. In 2022-2023, seven new start-up companies in the area accessed the MNFC and Packaging lab through this mechanism.
The MNFC provides 2,600 sqft clean space for a dedicated undergraduate teaching lab: students learn what is inside a microchip, how they work, and how they are made, providing hands-on integrated circuit microfabrication for diodes and MOSFETs.
ISO 5 space houses E-beam lithography (patterning to < 10 nm, up to 6 inch samples, e.g., superconducting quantum devices), direct laser writing and a dedicated SEM metrology tool.
ISO 6 space contains various plasma etching tools (Si, III-V, diamond, metals) and deposition tools (ALD, CVD, PVD), a range of thermal processing equipment, various characterization tools (for metrology with rapid processing inspection in mind), and a number of fume hoods and wet benches.
ISO 7 space is dedicated to the soft materials processing space, e.g., PDMS microfluidic device processing. This lab houses a tabletop direct laser write system, degassing ovens, curing ovens, plasma cleaners, and parylene coater. There are also a variety of 3D printers, including system that can produce 3D polymer structures with feature sizes from sub-micron to the millimeter scale for applications such as cell scaffolding and custom nano-needle processing.
Packaging Lab: Back-end Integration
MNFC PACKAGING LAB
The Packaging Lab is the largest growing core facility, with a suite of upgrades underway and the fastest growing user base of our cores. Tools include: dicing, scribing, cleaving, wire bonding (wedge, ball), flip-chip bonding, lapping and polishing. Examples of current work include (i) detector build technology at CERN (ATLAS, CMS), (ii) build of the giant six meter $100M CMB telescope at the Simons Observatory, and (iii) photonic sensing capabilities (interfacing with neural-networks).
This facility not only provides these back-end processing tools for users but handles bespoke work for academia, government and industry. Current upgrade projects are (i) installing an Indium evaporator for low temperature fine pitch 3D chip on chiplet integration, (ii) installing an automatic fluid dispensing robot and fine wire wedge/ball bonders.
IAC: Characterization
IMAGING AND ANALYSIS
The IAC has over 300 users per year (including 65 external organizations) and is the largest core facility in New Jersey for advanced characterization. The 7,500 ft2 labs meet NIST’s highest standards for environmental control (EMI, vibration and isolation). The IAC contains three SPMs (including a low temperature q-Plus AFM/STM capable of imaging molecular orbitals and measuring the force required to break a single chemical bond), two FIBs, two SEMs, Micro-CT, XRD, SAXS, TGA/GC/MS, Rheometers, DSC, UV-Vis, Raman, XPS, Ellipsometer, Optical microscopy with IR spectral mapping. A worldleading center for microscopy, it boasts five TEMs, some capable of imaging to <1 Å, and two cryo-EM machines.
As far as contribution to a regional partnership, Craig Arnold, vice dean for innovation and Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, touts Princeton’s diversity of semiconductor-related strengths.
“Princeton University has an incredibly diverse and deep community in the area of semiconductors covering different materials, different processing methods, etc.,” Arnold said. “In addition, we have a 15,000-square foot cleanroom with a corresponding packaging lab and a soft materials processing lab. Within our facility, we have a number of companies that work with us, and we have close ties to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a Department of Energy national lab that focuses on Plasma processing in semiconductor manufacturing.“
While Princeton, like Penn State, boasts manifold strengths in semiconductor research, Princeton is anticipating a regional partnership will have many benefits for all partners, and beyond. “Given the scale and diversity of the semiconductor industry, it is critical that universities collaborate,” Barry Rand, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, said. “Without such collaborations, researchers would not be exposed to the breadth, reach, and scope of the semiconductor ecosystem.”
Similar thinking, Rand said, goes for partnerships with industry, especially for a key aspect of the CHIPS and Science Act, workforce development.
“Additionally, such partnerships bring cnsiderable value to academic research, as industrial researchers understand the critical problems that require urgent solutions,” Rand said. “These problems will thus lead to the greatest impact for society and generate a well-trained workforce. I think an ideal hub would include a combination of industry, government, and academia. Colleges and universities would play the key roles of workforce training and advanced research and development.”