The Rice University Shared Equipment Authority (SEA) was established in 2001 as a way to provide its faculty with superb experimental facilities, research equipment, and support services at an affordable cost. The SEA Nanofabrication Cleanroom began operations in Abercrombie in 2004, and moved into purpose-built renovated space in the Space Science and Technology Building in 2018. The SEA Cleanroom is geared toward the fabrication and characterization of structures and devices at the nano- and micro-scale, and serves a large number of research disciplines at Rice, spanning eight departments across both the schools of engineering and natural sciences. The Cleanroom operates under the cost center umbrella of the larger SEA and is available to the Rice community for education and research purposes, as well as to external users from non-profit institutions and commercial entities.

Current cleanroom facilities include 3000 square feet of class 100 space, and features: thermal, sputtering, and e-beam deposition, ALD, SEM, mask aligner, maskless lithography, e-beam lithography, Nanoscribe 3-D lithography, stylus and optical profilometers, dedicated process-specific wet benches, dicing saw, wire bonder, optical microscopes, RIE, PE-CVD, critical point dryer, die bonder, ellipsometer, RTP, and reflectometer. It is supported by 3 full-time scientists (2 Ph.D. and 1 MS) with more than 36 combined years of experience.

Source:  Angelo Benedetto, SEA

Last updated:  July 2021