Idaho Microfabrication Lab (IML)

Lab Location

Boise State University
Boise, Idaho

Staff

Pete Miranda
Director
pmiranda@boisestate.edu
(208) 426-5713

Travis Gabel
Technical Support Engineer
travisgabel@boisestate.edu
(208) 426-4646

Expertise and Research

The IML consists of a 900 square foot Class 1000 clean room, a 1500 square foot process lab, and a 900 square foot metrology lab. The IML is equipped to fabricate microelectronic devices using various thin film deposition techniques, chemical processing, photolithography, and plasma etching. Characterization of many different types of materials can also be accomplished along with access to the Boise State Surface Science Lab and the Boise State Center for Materials Characterization.

Contracting Work

Work in this lab is contracted through the iLabs portal. You can learn more about iLabs by contacting the lab director.

IML Home Page

IML Equipment Table

Asset	Mfr and Model	Field	Application
Industrial Inkjet Printer	Fuji Film Dimatix	Additive Manufacturing, Materials, Deposition	High resolution deposition of fluidic materials over a varying materials, thickness and location. Deposition of biological fluids including cell patterning, DNA arrays and proteomics allowing features down to 20 microns.
Industrial Inkjet Printer	Nscrypt 150-3Dn-HP	Additive Manufacturing	High resolution printer that provides micro-dispensing, 3D printing, laser micro machining, sintering, curing or heating, pick and place, micro-milling, UV curing, mapping and vision. inks, epoxies, solders, conductive pastes and dielectric paste as a short list of materials. Applications include micro-electronic packaging, resistive devices, heater coils, printed antennas, printed electronics, ceramic structures, heterogeneous mixtures.
Benchtop Electronics Printer	Optomec Aerosol Jet (AJ) 200	Additive Manufacturing	Enables printing of interconnects on both 2D and 3D substrates on devices up to 200mm x 200mm with an accuracy of 25 microns.
Pulsed Light Electronics Printer	Xenon S2100 Flash Sintering System	Additive Manufacturing	Evaluate the sintering characteristics of UV light curable nano inks in both research and low volume printing environments.
Thin Film Ellipsometer	J.A. Woollam M-2000 Spectroscopic Ellipsometer	Semiconductor Characterization and Metrology	Measuerment of film thickness and refractive index of thin films supporting up to 200 mm wafer size.
Thin Film Thickness Measurment System	Nanometrics NanoSpec 212	Semiconductor Characterization and Metrology	Measures thickness of thin films of semiconductors.
Stylus Profilometer	Bruker Dektax XT-A	Semiconductor Characterization and Metrology	3D mapping of semiconductor devices and materials.
Optical Profiler	Wyko / Veeco NT1100	Semiconductor Characterization and Metrology	Large scale non- contact surface metrology for MEMS, thick films, optics, ceramics & advanced materials for nano and microscale devices.
Sputtering Machine	AJA International Orion 5	Materials Deposition	Physical vapor deposition system with RF and DC target sputtering capability. 100mm tooling, heated substrate, load lock, film thickness monitor, substrate biasing.
Benchtop Sputterer	Sputter Sciences CrC-150	Materials Deposition	Deposits various metal films uniformly on a targets up to 2 inches wide and wafers up to 150 mm in diameter.
Thermal Evaporator	CHA 600	Materials Deposition	Evaporate thin films up to 1500 nanometers thick. Can accommodate up to three 8? wafers simultaneously and up to three different layers may be evaporated in one run.
Plasma Etcher	Oxford PlasmaLab 180 ICP with Bosch Etch (fluorine-based)	Materials Plasma Etching	Etching semiconductor materials using reactive ion, BOSCH, silicon nitride, silicon cryo, silicon dioxide and metal etching processes. Can accommodate varying wafer sizes.
Reactant Ion Etcher	Branson Asher Dionex 3000	Materials Plasma Etching	Etching semiconductor films and removing photo-resist using reactive ion oxygen-based etching processes.
Ion Mill	Veeco ME-1001	Materials Plasma Etching	Argon plasma ion beam milling system for microelectronics patterning. Water-cooled substrate holder up to 200mm wafer sizes.
Plasma Processing System	PVA TePla Ion 40	Materials Plasma Etching	Batch-mode plasma system for etch, strip, clean, and surface treatment of wafers up to 150mm.
Acid Station with RCA clean	JST Manufacturing	Surface Chemistry/Wet Processing	RCA cleaning and Piranha cleaning of silicon wafers.
General Base Station	JST Manufacturing	Surface Chemistry/Wet Processing	Processing of base chemistries in cleanroom including photoresist developer and stripper, potassium hydroxide, ammonium hydroxide and other chemicals.
Solvent Processing Station	JST Manufacturing	Surface Chemistry/Wet Processing	Used for processing solvent chemistries in the IML cleanroom. Equipped with a spin coat station and hot plate for soft back out of spun on materials.
Spin Rinse Dryer	SemiTool ST-460	Surface Chemistry/Wet Processing	Provides deionized water rinsing and nitrogen drying of silicon wafers and removal of surface contaminants on 100mm wafers.
Contact Aligner	Quintel Q-4000	Photolithography	UV light source patterning with contact or proximity printing. Use with mask geometries of 5x5x90mil. 1 micron resolution.
Contact Aligner	OAI 5000	Photolithography	Provides production scale mask alignment on semiconductor materials as successive layers are processed to 0.1 micron precision. Includes robot wafer transfer system.
Spin Coater	CEE Model 200X-F integrated with solvent processing station)	Photolithography	May be used to apply photoresist and other coatings to semiconductor materials. This tool is incorporated into the JST solvent bench.
Thermal Oxidation/Diffusion Furnace	MiniBrute MB-80	Semiconductor Thermal Processing	Provides thermal oxidation (up to 1200C) for N-type dopant diffusion for wafers up to 100mm.
Modular Process Technology RTP-600s Rapid Thermal Annealer	Modular Process Technology RTP-600s Rapid Thermal Annealer	Semiconductor Thermal Processing	Benchtop rapid thermal processing system with multi-gas capabilities and support of wafers up to 6? in diameter. Can be used for implant activation, contact alloying and silicide formation.
Blue Electric SV-57A Vacuum Oven	Blue Electric SV-57A Vacuum Oven	Semiconductor Thermal Processing	Vacuum capable oven used for various applications in semiconductor processing up to 150C for wafers up to 100mm
Environmental Chambers	Various	Semiconductor Thermal Processing	Can operate up to 300C in varying environments including vacuum.
Programmable Hot Plates	Programmable Hot Plates (Integrated With Each of Three JST Chemical Processing Stations)	Semiconductor Thermal Processing	Facilitate drying of liquids on semiconductors at chemical processing stations. This tool is incorporated into the JST benches.
Wire Bonding System	WestBond Model 7476	Electronic Packaging	Manual bonding of aluminum or gold wires ranging from 18-50 micron in diameter to semiconductor devices.
Wedge Bonding System	K&S Model 4526	Electronic Packaging	Manual bonding of aluminum or gold wires ranging from 18-75 micron in diameter to semiconductor devices.
Wafer Dicer	ADT982-6	Electronic Packaging	Enables sawing of semiconductor wafer into discrete devices.