Facilities

The George J. Kostas Nanoscale Technology and Manufacturing Research Center at Northeastern University

The Kostas Nanomanufacturing Research Center at Northeastern University represents a major fabrication and characterization resource for the established Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing. It includes 10,000 square feet of class 10/100 and class 10,000 imaging and support space in the Egan Research Center, as well as 2000 square feet of clean room and ancillary space in the Dana Research Building. The Kostas facility houses a complete 6-inch wafer fabrication line and consists of three areas. Spacious and well organized, the facility was founded in 2005 with a gift from George Kostas, Northeastern '43.

Recent equipment acquisition by the Facility includes:

  1. In late '07 an in situ O2 plasma clean source (Evactron 25) was purchased from XEI scientific and installed in the Zeiss Supra 25 SEM. This device allows the SEM system to be "scrubbed" of residual PMMA which outgases during e-beam lithography causing specimen charging during imaging.
  2. In April ’08 a new thermal thin film evaporation system will be brought online for deposition aluminum and other metals as well as Mg Fans SiOx. Substrate can be heated or cooled.
  3. Also installed in Feb '07 was an ST-500 Janis microprobe station for electrical sample characterization. In this system samples can be isolated in vacuum. Sample temperature can be varied from 20-400K with or without a magnetic filed (axial and transverse). Signal test bandwidth is DC to the microwave region.
  4. Web site Update. The Kostas Facility web site continues to allow student/faculty to access facilities and training with ever expanding capabilities. We are continually adding new training videos as well as an equipment blog this year for equipment maintenance and changes. We added a cut sheet for facility resource for grant and proposal writer. Also, we will be introducing a process page for capturing process recipes for equipment within the facility to help to establish "best practices".

The full description of available equipment at the facility processing equipment can be scheduled for use on line at the facility web site: www.kostas.neu.edu