New technologies for electronics fabrication in a time of unprecedented demand
Project ID: 2531ad1551
(You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Manufacturing The Future
UCL Lead department: London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN)
Lead Supervisor: Carla Perez Martinez
Project Summary:
Why is this research important? The demand for electronics is unprecedented, with processors needed for consumer devices and cloud computing. Manufacturing electronics requires technologies for material removal, or etching. For example, a mobile phone accelerometer consists of silicon shaped into micrometre-sized beams and springs. To carve such small features, machines known as etchers create and direct a plasma towards a target covered with a patterned mask. In this project, you will optimise a novel etching system, based on a technology known as the Ionic Liquid Ion Source (ILIS).
Who will you be working with? With Dr Carla Perez-Martinez in the London Centre for Nanotechnology (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/london-nano/fabrication-ionic-liquid-ion-sources)
What you will be doing? ILIS are needle devices that produce a spray of ions from ionic liquids, a type of liquid composed solely of positive and negatively charged ions. The resulting beam can be used to treat materials. A single ILIS has already been used to etch silicon with enhanced yields. Ionic liquids are non-volatile and thus an ILIS-based etcher would not require many of the safety fixtures required to handle the toxic gases used by conventional etchers. You will design, implement and test an ILIS needle array and attached optics for use in industry-scale electronics fabrication. You will be trained in charged particle physics and in COMSOL Multiphysics for simulation of the devices, and you will gain experimental skills by testing the devices in our vacuum chamber facilities. The student will irradiate silicon targets and use atomic force microscopy and other techniques to determine the uniformity of etching from the array.
Who are we looking for? Suitable candidates will have a minimum of an upper second-class UK Master’s degree in physics, electrical or electronic engineering, materials science, or a related discipline, or an equivalent overseas qualification.