The realisation of advanced semiconductor devices relies heavily on the plasma-based dry etching, which is essential as the only practical way to transfer micro/nano features with smooth surface, anisotropic profile and high aspect ratio. In most dry etching techniques applied so far, the ICP has become a very promising technique because of its higher flux with lower-ion energy (higher etch rates and lower damage) as compared to reactive ion etching (RIE). Several chemistries have been used to etch silicon material; fluorine- and chlorine-based plasmas are preferred due to the high volatilities of the Si fluorides and Si chlorides. The aim of this project is first to study the effects of plasma conditions on the etch properties of Si by using HBr and BCl3 chemistries under various coil and platen powers, pressures, gas flow rates and temperatures in an ICP etch machine, and then to develop the optimised Si etching processes. The student will be trained in the use of all relevant equipment, such as photolithography, ICP dry etch machine, Dektak and scanning electron microscope (SEM) in the JWNC for etching and measuring the etch depth, profile and selectivity.

Pre-Req: A basic understanding of micro- and nanofabrication is beneficial.

The aim of this project is to investigate the ability to manufacture nanostructed polymer substrates by injection moulding. The student will be trained on the use on an injection moulding machine to manufacture nanostructured substrates from a selection of different polymer materials processed at different conditions. The manufactured samples will then be investigated by electron and scanning probe microscopy to assess the quality of the parts as a function of the material and the processing conditions. The student is expected to work closely together with PhD students and post docs of the research group.

Pre-Req: General software skills.

Most suitable for students in MSc Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, MSc Electronics & Elec Eng & Management and MSc Electronics & Electrical Engineering. Electron beam lithography is used to write nanoscale patterns on many types of substrates for diverse applications. These include electronic devices such as transistors, optical devices such as lasers and structures which enable the analysis of biological samples. The School of Engineering has a commercial electron beam lithography tool, the VB6, which is used by a large number of research staff and students from throughout the University. One issue which afflicts the users of electron beam lithography is the difficulty of predicting the optimum electron dose required for an arbitrary pattern on any given substrate type. We have commercial software which calculates this, but fine tuning is always required. This has been the subject of several papers in recent international conferences. The aim of this project is to investigate this issue for a small subset of common substrate types, making use of the VB6 not only to write the patterns, but also to measure their size afterwards. The student will be involved in both practical and theoretical aspects of the work. The practical side will involve use of the JWNC clean room facilities to fabricate and measure the chosen test structures. He/she will also need to design the test structures and analyse the results. There is also potential for liaising with the software vendor as the project proceeds.

Pre-Req: Ability to program in C (do not need C++).

Most suitable for students in MSc Computer Systems Engineering. Electron microscopes are standardly used to evaluate the results of nanoscale patterning, both in this School and throughout the world. Very often a large number of images need to be obtained; sometime this is to assess the reliability of a particular process, other times it is to investigate the effect of many small changes to a process. In either case this is a time-consuming exercise which would benefit from automation. The aim of this project is to write some software which will enable this automation. We have access to a C++ interface library, xTlib, for our FEI electron microscope. This enables complete control of the microscope, though the user will still need to load the sample and carry out the initial setup procedures. It can be configured to work offline for test purposes. The simplest implementation will simply be to move the sample and acquire images at predefined locations. More functionality can be added as time permits, for instance the addition of shape recognition to enable the microscope to align the region of interest correctly before taking an image. Maintaining the focus is also important and the addition of auto-focus ability would be of considerable benefit.

Pre-Req: Telecoms/sensors.

The aim of this project is to characterise single wavelength (single mode) semiconductor lasers at wavelength used for atomic clocks and magnetometers (795 nm) and optical communications (1550 nm). Semiconductor lasers have been fabricated that operate at a single wavelength and the aim of this project is to characterise their single wavelength operation Specific tasks include the following: (1) Measure the optical spectrum of a single wavelength semiconductor laser operating at around 795nm (2) Measure the optical spectrum of a single wavelength semiconductor laser operating at around 1550nm (3) Explain their spectra in terms of standard semiconductor laser theory.

TMOS fabrication technology can be used to realize optical counterparts of integrated electronics on a silicon substrate for signal generation, modulation, switching, multiplexing and processing. Therefore, silicon provides a low-cost material platform for the development of opto-electronic devices with small footprint and high functionality. This project will deal with the simulation of coupled optical cavities for the development of high-order optical filters with arbitrary transfer function. The first objective of the project is to simulate single-ring geometries and to analyse how the design parameters influence the filter performance. The second objective is to design tunable coupled cavities that can be used to shape the filter response and to tune its passband width and central frequency. Simulations will make use of advanced software tools such as Beam Propagation Methods (BMP) and Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD).

This project will employ microfluidics to produce fibre scaffold with microstructures for cell growth. The mechanical and transport properties of these structures will then be studied using a variety of techniques including AFM and fluorescent microscopy.

Pre-Req: Ideally a Physics/Electronics background with experience of device fabrication.

This project is most suitable for Electronics & Electrical Engineering and Electronics & Electrical Engineering & Management. Colloidal lithography can provide a means to fabricate large area nanostructures. This project will replicate a method of producing 3-D plasmonic nanostructures that are sensitive to their surrounding media (ie they could be used as sensors). After fabrication the optical properties of the plasmonic array will be measured. Special Project MSc

The Research Division of Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering has a world leading position in compound semiconductor MOSFET device technology for future digital integrated circuit applications. In this project, students will work alongside postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers and contribute to the development of semiconductor process modules being established in the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre. The exact scope of the work will be decided at the time of the project as this is a rapidly moving area of research. It is likely that the student will spend time in the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre shadowing the activities of researchers and contribute to the collection and analysis of data from test structures being utilised to develop the new process modules.