Mission and Task

The main mission of the Scientific Facility Nanostructuring Lab (NSL) is the support of Postdocs, PhD and master students of the Institute in their needs for sample processing and characterization in central cleanroom facilities. Under class-10 cleanroom conditions with stable room humidity and temperature, samples can be processed by students of the Institute or in service by the cleanroom staff using photolithography, dry and wet etching, and material deposition under vacuum. For the fabrication of structures down to sub 10 nm – on small but also large area, electron beam lithography systems using electron beam acceleration voltages up to 100 kV are available. A focused ion beam system allows to cut and to sculpture samples under vision of a scanning electron microscope. State-of-the-art scanning electron microscopes are offered as characterization tools. The infrastructure is intended to be used in parallel by many students on their own, is dedicated to deal with a large variation of different materials and substrates avoiding cross-contamination, and especially to handle small sample sizes (typically 5 mm by 5 mm), but also wafers up to 4 inches. Besides introducing students into the usage of the equipment and offering processing service, the NSL team continuously develops sample processing recipes and the infrastructure further. Here we especially focus on excluding the exposure of samples to oxygen, water and humidity in and between processing and characterisation steps.
> NSL Tools and Equipment