Dear BNC Faculty,

As a gentle reminder, below is a notice from last week’s weekly e-news referencing the newly developed material and process compatibly matrix.  The BNC Engineering staff is soliciting suggestions and improvements on this matrix.  Please email Ron Reger (rreger@purdue.edu) with any comments, suggestions or modifications. 

Here at the Birck Nanotechnology Center we have a wide range of fabrication projects happening daily within our state-of-the-art cleanroom, spanning many engineering and scientific disciplines from across campus and beyond.  With this broad range of applications comes a diverse set of materials and processes, and   occasionally certain materials used within our process tools can cause harmful levels of contamination due to particulates, outgassing, re-deposition, and chemical incompatibility. 

To that end we have developed a “Material and Process Compatibility” matrix showing 3 to 4 levels of allowed materials in our major systems in Lithography, Etch, Physical Vapor Deposition, and Growth/Deposition systems.  These levels of allowed materials and/or substrate cleaning requirements are categorized under the areas of “Metallic Contamination,” “Outgassing Contamination,” “Elevated Temperature,” “Backside Cleanliness,” and “Special.”  We have carefully considered this matrix over the last several weeks, and we’re now publishing it as an overlay of requirements to keep our systems clean and pristine for all users.  Here is a link to the matrix:

https://wiki.itap.purdue.edu/display/BNCWiki/Material+and+Process+Compatibility

In the Birck Wiki there is also a link to this matrix on each equipment page.  As with any new procedure and process item we solicit your suggestions for improvements and modifications to this matrix.  There is a lot of information contained in the document and we need input from the user community to ensure we have the best and most accurate information.  Additionally, if you wish to use something that is outside this matrix you must contact a staff member to discuss your process requirements before running your process.

Thanks for your efforts and support to keep our cleanroom tools clean and compatible with a wide range of processes for all users.

The Birck Engineering Staff

Thank you!

Jaime Turner
Lead Administrative Assistant to the Director | Birck Nanotechnology Center

BRK | 1205 W State Street | West Lafayette, IN 47907

o: 765-494-3509 | m: 765-491-3064 | jjturner@purdue.edu