Nanofabrication

Equipment usage rates

Birck Building map

About the Scifres Nanofabrication Lab

The BNC facility represents one of the largest and cleanest university cleanrooms in the world.  The nanofabrication cleanroom consists of 25,000 sq. ft. of bay-chase cleanroom, with 20% of the bays operating at ISO 3 (Class 1), 50% operating at ISO 4 (Class 10), 15% operating at ISO 5 (Class 100), and the remaining 15% operating at ISO 6 (Class 1000).  The three-level structure consists of a full subfab, the cleanroom level, and an air-handling level above the cleanroom. A perforated raised floor ensures unidirectional airflow and bulkhead-mounted equipment separates operational functions from maintenance functions. A combination of careful control of the airflow path, multiple stages of filtration, careful choice of materials, and non-ionic-steam humidification ensure the control of both particulate and molecular contamination. A very tight waffle slab provides NIST “A” vibration rating, approximating quiet, slab-on-grade construction.

The ultra-pure water (UPW) system at BNC supplies all laboratories and the cleanroom with incredibly pure water. Termed nano-grade water, this water is below the measurement limits of 15 parts per trillion of boron, the ion most loosely bound to the mixed beds and therefore the most likely ionic impurity in the water. This water also contains less than 225 parts per trillion of total oxidizable carbon (TOC) and less than 1 part per billion of dissolved oxygen.