Acquisition of an Advanced Plasma Etcher for III-V Nano-structures
Abstract
The current DURIP proposal is an effort to replace the out-of-order plasma etcher in our institution by an advanced system that is capable of producing high quality nanostructure patterns on III-V semiconductor wafers. Plasma etching is a standard fabrication processing technique that enables the production of micro-and nano-scale constructs on a variety of substrates. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted reactive ion etching (RIE) is a widely practiced technique for transferring high quality patterns from the mask onto the wafer. In nano-photonics, dry etching (anisotropic plasma etching) is usually considered as one the most critical fabrication steps that determines the proper operation of the final product or device. The Nano-Photonics System Fabrication Facility (NPSFF) of CREOL at CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida (UCF), has both class 100 and 1000 clean room areas. Housed in the facility is a line of lithography and device fabrication equipment. Several specific programs currently funded by the Department of Defense will be enhanced and new directions will be enabled with the addition of a plasma etcher system dedicated to III-V semiconductors to the Facility. With adequate supervision and service, the useful life of the equipment is expected to exceed 20 years. In addition to CREOL faculty, researchers from other UCF units and colleges (engineering, physics, and nanoscience) as well as entrepreneurs from local and national companies will be given access to the Facility. The enabled research areas include active nano-photonic integrated circuits, metallic and metallo-dielectric nanolasers, chip-scale ultrafast photonics, quantum cascade lasers, vertical-cavity surface-emitting nanolasers, microring lasers, topological lasers, photonic communication circuits, nonlinear integrated optics, and various infrared detectors. Acquisition of the proposed equipment will allow several Ph.D. students in multiple research groups to conduct their research projects. The graduate students will gain unique cleanroom processing skills through the fabrication of their respective devices. Developing these comprehensive set of skills will help them to become experts in the fields of integrated nano-photonics, semiconductor lasers, nanolasers, high-speed photonics, quantum optics, and plasmonics and will prepare them to become young professionals with leading roles in industry or academia.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1810390
Entities
People
- Mercedeh Khajavikhan
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of Central Florida