Free Access to Electron Beam Lithography at the University of Bath

Free access to our advanced electron-beam lithography system (Hitachi S-4300 SEM with thermal Schottky field-emission gun, 50mm interferometric stage & Raith ElphyPlus professional lithography attachment) is to be offered to users from other UK academic institutions for an average of 1 day/week for the next 4 years. In addition, supporting processes will be made available including thin film deposition and wet/dry etching facilities. A Web-based contact/booking system will be implemented, and new jobs will be reviewed at a meeting of the Advisory Group (Bending, Andrews, Landi and Lambson) within 48 hours of first contact. Subject to a positive evaluation for feasibility and appropriateness we commit ourselves to scheduling jobs within two weeks of this meeting. Expert support for process and CAD pattern design will be provided by Prof. Bending and Dr Andrews. Expert hands-on technical assistance and training with resist preparation, lithography and additional processes will be provided by our cleanroom technician, Dr Landi, who has several years of experience in successfully training PhD students and Post-Docs etc.. Expert training and assistance in the safe use of chemicals will be provided by our chemical technician, Mrs Wendy Lambson. In addition we have budgeted to pay travel costs for one external visiting scientist to/from Bath to access the equipment as well as overnight accommodation at the University. The performance of the access arrangements will be reviewed every six months by the Advisory Group, at which point on-going costs and free capacity will also be assessed. Access arrangements and results of work done through this scheme will be advertised prominently on a website designed for this purpose. We attach fourteen letters of support from serious potential users at a large number of different Universities and Departments to illustrate the level of demand for our system. Most of these users are attracted by our proposal because they do not have access to high specification electron-beam lithography hardware of the type we are offering. However, many also state that the provision of process design expertise and training along with an excellent complementary set of supporting processes is a particularly valuable feature of our package.