Concept-to-prototype capabilities

The first centralized facility of its kind in Florida, the Motorola Nanofabrication Research Facility at Florida International University is an open-access initiative in support of nano-scale devices, systems and materials research that encompasses a broad range of technologies and capabilities. The facility provides nanofabrication, analytical instrumentation, materials characterization and process-development laboratories for students, faculty and industrial researchers.

Located on the ground floor of FIU’s Engineering Center, a 36-acre research facility approximately one-half mile from the university’s main campus, the $15 million Motorola Nanofabrication Research Facility is an integral part of the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute (AMERI), FIU’s broader materials research program.
Harnessing the synergy inherent in the study and development of nanoscale technologies, the
facility boasts:

specialized equipment required to develop new and novel fabrication techniques unique to the creation of functional materials and devices that are no greater than 100 nanometers: (1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair);
a full complement of standard semiconductor processing equipment to leverage the capabilities of robust and proven techniques; and
state-of-the-art analytical tools to study and characterize these nano-sized devices, as well as the materials and processes used to make them.

Motorola’s donation of fully-functional nanofabrication research
laboratories enabled FIU to build this facility.

Resources & equipment

The Motorola Nanofabrication Research Facility is supported by Class 10,000 and Class 100 clean rooms and nanofabrication capabilities including focused ion-beam patterning, ultra high resolution e-beam lithography and optical photolithography. Fabrication of nano/micro electromechanical systems (N/MEMS) can be accomplished by a combination of nanolithography, reactive ion etching and thin-film deposition by a variety of techniques (e-beam physical vapor deposition, sputtering, filament evaporation, chemical vapor deposition).

A unique facility among institutions of higher learning in South Florida, one of the facility’s many highlights is its Class 100 clean room, an integral component in the facility’s mission to serve as a test bed for innovative techniques in the fabrication, characterization and analysis of nanometer-scale devices and materials. Combined with this space is a larger mixed-use and general-purpose lab designed to Class 10,000 clean-room specifications.

Adjacent to these clean rooms are individual labs supporting faculty with research groups in nanodevices. Specialized equipment support advanced applications such as cutting-edge work in carbon nanotubes (CNTs). This site is also home to laboratory facilities and state-of-the-art equipment of the laboratories for Nanoscale Magnetic Devices, CNT-based devices and materials, and Nanophotonics.

The Analytical Instrumentation Laboratory contains a field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), a 200 kev Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), four x-ray diffractometers, thermal analysis (DSC, TGA, DMA, dilatometer, flash diffusion), mechanical testing (uniaxial/biaxial Instron, creep), thermal processing (air, vacuum, hydrogen, controlled atmosphere furnaces), and bio-analytical system.

The Motorola facility is also supported by advanced electronics packaging capability through a major donation of equipment by Natel Engineering.
The 10,000-square-foot facility houses a unique integrated platform for research and innovation.