The James Watt Nanofabrication Centre at Glasgow University, Scotland, has opened. Centred on the department of electronics and electrical engineering, the new facility will be the focus of interdisciplinary research at the nanometre scale and brings together many different research groups working in engineering and the physical and life sciences.
The Centre has comprehensive micro and nanofabrication facilities housed within 750 m2 of clean room space, including one of the most advanced large area high resolution electron beam lithography tools in the world.
A boost for the Nanofabrication Centre is the announcement of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding, worth over £4 M, for a major nanoelectronics research project.
It will involve five teams from the university collaborating to develop transistor technologies required for future generations of integrated circuits.
It is anticipated that the work will have a major impact in key areas of electronics including microprocessors for computers, but will also be used more widely in numerous communications, medical, safety and imaging applications.
Professor Iain Thayne, who is leading the research, said, “This project between the departments of electronics and electrical engineering and physics and astronomy will deliver key information and understanding which will enable the semiconductor industry to continue to be one of the most successful on the planet in the coming decades.”