New Tool Takes UAlbany Chip Research to the Atomic Level
ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 23, 2025) — A new state-of-the-art tool that allows researchers to manipulate the thickness of experimental new microchip designs at the atomic scale has been installed in the UAlbany College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering’s Innovation Lab.
The system is manufactured by U.K.-based Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology and is one of three new Oxford Instruments semiconductor fabrication tools coming to the CNSE lab located at the NY CREATES Albany NanoTech Complex.
The new PE-ALD system will help researchers more efficiently fabricate prototype microchips by being able to manipulate their core components — including adding and removing extraordinarily thin layers of materials — at the atomic scale.
PE-ALD stands for Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition and describes the process by which molecular layers of material can be added or removed from microchips while being manufactured. As semiconductor devices have gotten smaller, researchers need new tools that allow them to make even smaller manipulations to their designs at the nanometer and molecular size scale.
The technology was acquired by CNSE through UAlbany’s Center of Advanced Technology in Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics (CATN2), which is supported by Empire State Development. In total, the Innovation Lab will see nearly $10 million in high-tech equipment upgrades in the coming months, much of it funded through the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act.
Researchers at CNSE and their industry partners, such as TEL, GE Global Research, Humonix, NoMIS Power, Lux Semiconductors, Dagmy Motors, and more, will use the PE-ALD instrument to perform applied research and development in chip processing, microelectronics and semiconductors and more easily explore new designs at a smaller scale before moving to production for a wide array of applications.
Advancing the Lab-to-Fab Model
That kind of lab-to-fab partnership between CNSE and industry partners has been a critical part of the success of the Albany NanoTech Complex over the last two decades. It is also a pillar of the Microelectronics Commons established by the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act.
Through CNSE, UAlbany is a founding member of the $40 million Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH), which is one of eight regional hubs that make up the Microelectronics Commons. The other four founding members are NY CREATES, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cornell University and IBM.
“This new ALD technology will give CNSE faculty and students access to the most sophisticated tools available for cutting-edge research that will build the next generation of chips needed to power our everyday lives,” said CNSE Dean Michele J. Grimm. “Strategic and adaptable partnerships between industry and academic institutions are essential to timely and useful innovation, and CNSE’s longstanding collaboration with partners like TEL exemplifies the wisdom of the lab-to-fab model pioneered at the Albany NanoTech Complex.”
Two additional Oxford Instruments etch tools funded by NORDTECH will soon be installed in CNSE’s Innovation Lab. They are for deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) and atomic layer etch (ALE), which uses a cyclical etch process and removes a single atomic layer of material each cycle. Synergy, as a percentage, is the measure of how close an ALE process is to perfect monolayer removal, and Oxford Instruments consistently demonstrates the highest synergy in its ALE processes.
The Innovation Lab is a core research facility at CNSE that is primarily a cleanroom containing tools and resources for performing micro and nanofabrication, as well as measurement (metrology). Researchers use the lab to develop new types of nanoelectronic devices, including new types of memory devices that mimic how synapses in our brain work, which has direct applications in AI hardware. Faculty use the lab to deposit and pattern new combinations of materials to create these new devices, some of which have been successfully transitioned to complex integrated circuits in NY CREATES’ 300mm fabrication facility.
“This new system will allow us to better control and optimize the properties of the material we’re working with at an atomic scale, which has important applications for emerging devices like quantum computers and more energy efficient computer memory devices, known as memristors, which are modeled after the human brain,” said Christophe Vallée, a TEL innovation scientist and professor at CNSE.