The San Diego Technology Infrastructure (SDNI) offers users from academic, industry and government laboratories open, affordable access to a broad spectrum of nanofabrication and characterization technologies and expertise that enable and accelerate cutting edge scientific research, proof-of-concept demonstration, device and system prototyping, product development, and technology translation. In addition to its Nano3 Fabrication and Chip-scale Photonics Testing User Facilities, SDNI leverages specialized resources and expertise at UCSD for NanoBioMedicine, NanoPhotonics, and NanoMagnetics, enabling transformative research and education, and accelerating the translation of discoveries and new nanotechnologies to the marketplace.

User Facilities:

1) Nano3 Fabrication Facility

The Nano3 facility provides access to advanced capabilities for fabrication and characterization of nano/micro-devices in state-of-the-art class 100/1000 cleanroom, materials analysis, and microfluidics device laboratories. Nano3 also offers several hands-on introductory training courses in microfabrication and microfluidic device fabrication. Since its inception in 2006, the facility has served many hundreds of individual users from over 160 academic groups and over 110 industrial companies, with nano/micro-fabrication needs ranging from research on electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices to biomedical and biochemical devices.

Available at Nano3 are instruments for material deposition, lithography, etching, and in-process characterization tools. Specialized facilities for nanoscale fabrication and characterization include a state-of-the-art Electron-Beam Lithography system, a DualBeam SEM/FIB system with cryo-capabilities, Nanoimprinting equipment, an Atomic Layer Deposition system, three Field-Emission Electron Microscopes, a Scanning Probe Microscope and more.

Approximately 1,000 ft2 of laboratory space and equipment are dedicated to biomedical device fabrication, with capabilities for nickel electroforming of high quality molds for hot embossing or injection molding, PDMS-based microfluidic processing, nanoimprinting, imprinting on flexible surfaces, CNC micro-machining, precision dicing, and more.

More details can be found at http://nano3.calit2.net.

2) Chip-scale photonics testing facility

The UCSD NNCI site includes a chip-scale photonics testing facility that is connected to the UCSD data center testing system, enabling real-time testing of developed devices and circuits in a realistic system application environment. The facility houses unique tools that allow external and internal users to measure the electrical/optical response of photonic devices and circuits up to 67 GHz. Plans are underway to expand the capability of the facility by adding new equipment that will allow use of the facility’s measurement capabilities to test wafer-scale photonic integrated circuits, devices, and systems for nanobiomedical applications. The facility also has the ability to characterize various materials, devices, and circuits for photonics, electronics, metamaterials, optofluidics, spintronics, quantum optics, quantum communication and computing, nanomedicine, biochemical and biomedical sensing, and other applications.

More details can be found at http://sdni.ucsd.edu/chip-scale-photonics.php.