The ASRC Nanofabrication Facility undertakes collaborative multidisciplinary projects centered around creating novel devices and interfaces. Examples of past and ongoing projects include miniature electrical circuits for quantum computing applications, microfluidic devices to create lab-on-chip platforms, microneedle arrays to interface with individual cells, micro electromechanical pressure sensors, nano-coatings, and many others. The possibilities are virtually endless!

To create these devices we routinely use a variety of lithographic techniques that produce patterns which span eight orders of magnitude: from several nanometers to centimeters in size.

These patterns are subsequently used to either deposit materials, such as metals, glasses, or ceramics, or to etch these materials with nanometer precision.

The facility is also supported by an imaging suite, that consists of a cryogenic TEM for life sciences, a materials science TEM, a training TEM, and a dual beam SEM / FIB / Nanomanipulator system for sample preparation. For users, the facility provides an opportunity to carry out hands-on research with some of the world’s most sophisticated instruments for the fabrication and characterization of materials at the micro and nanoscale.