The NISRC is a centre
of excellence for research and development in silicon technology, thin film
technology and novel device structures.
The facility offers support through technology transfer, training and collaborative
enterprise to industry in new growth areas.
The Centre has a complete silicon processing suite
suitable for the fabrication of 0.8 mm CMOS integrated circuits on 100mm
diameter substrates and limited capability on 150mm wafers. For thin film
work there is a wide range of PVD systems including dc and rf magnetron sputtering
and EB evaporation. The Centre is set up as a versatile research laboratory
rather than a dedicated IC production facility. This enables it to respond
to an increasingly wide range of industrial needs.
The Centre has been at the forefront
of direct silicon wafer bonding technology for the fabrication of silicon
on insulator substrates (SOI) and was able to assist a start-up company for
SOI substrates to become established.
The Centre has
also considerable expertise in Chemical Vapour Deposition
of insulators, semiconductors and metals. This ranges
from the deposition of polycrystalline silicon on glass
for thin film transistor circuits to epitaxial growth
of Si,Ge, for silicon HBTs.
The NISRC has
recently entered the world of Nanotechnology forming part of
the new £11 million Nanotech NI project in collaboration with
Chemistry and Physics within QUB and the Nanotechnology
Research Institute based at the University of Ulster
Jordanstown. Employing state of the art technology such as
E-beam Lithography, Atomic Layer Deposition(ALD), the centre
aims to fabricate nanoscale devices and Nano
Electro-Mechanical Systems.(NEMS).
RESEARCH AREAS
UHV-CVD of Si1-X Gex for thin SOI and silicon HBTs
Metallic ground planes and thermal vias for SOI applications
CVD of tungsten and copper
High density interconnects
Thin Film Transistors on glass substrates
mm wave components
Clinical sensors
Micro-
and Nano-mechanical devices
Soft magnetic layers
Device
Simulation
SPECIALIST FACILITIES
Atomic layer deposition
system
ICP
deep reactive ion etcher
E-Beam
lithography system with a thermal field emission SEM
