UC Cleanroom available for campus and industry research use

Located on the 300 level of the Mantei Center on UC’s uptown campus, the cleanroom is an 8,000-square-foot laboratory housing lithography, deposition, etching, and electrical and optical characterization tools for micro- and nano-fabrication. It serves as one of the core facilities for semiconductors, sensors, micro electromechanical systems, and other materials and devices used by multiple researchers across campus and outside of UC. It also serves as an educational center for training a future semiconductor workforce, as well as a resource for the university and surrounding business community. 

The Mantei Center Cleanroom is a controlled environment free of airborne particulate. The UC facility is critical in addressing the increased need for a skilled semiconductor and microelectronics workforce and related research efforts. 

“In the next decade the major driver of semiconductor electronics is going to be communication, artificial intelligence, space electronics, and the automotive industry," said Rashmi Jha, professor in UC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Mantei Center Cleanroom.

“We’ll need more people with semiconductor expertise to keep up with evolving technologies. In this lab, students work on various semiconductor process equipment and handle silicon wafers, among other things," Jha said. "They learn the job responsibilities of technicians and process engineers working in a semiconductor fabrication facility, similar to the ones Intel is building in Ohio.”

The facility offers faculty and student researchers an opportunity to explore critical projects that would not be possible without access to the high-tech facility. 

“From microsensors for implanting into the human body to lab-on-a-chip devices for neural circuit study, my students can use the cleanroom to carry out critical microfabrication techniques in house, allowing them to convert novel ideas and concepts into real devices to address real-life challenges in healthcare and many other fields,” said Tao Li, UC associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

In 2022, Intel Corp. announced grants to UC for semiconductor education and research, as the company broke ground on two new Ohio fabrication plants. Through that grant, UC leads a coalition of 15 colleges and universities — the Ohio Southwest Alliance on Semiconductors and Integrated Scalable Manufacturing (OASiS) — to offer microcredentials to prepare students and workers for jobs in semiconductor technology and manufacturing. UC expects to train 1,000 workers by the end of 2025.  

The Mantei Center Cleanroom is a key part of this training program, which gives students hands-on experience and teaches the fundamentals and safety of working in cleanrooms. The material in this course augments the longer, sometimes multiple-year, in-house training that companies like Intel provide their employees, giving students of the program a leg up for job readiness. 

UC is also part of the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium, a collection of more than 60 universities, businesses and government agencies across the Midwest that are helping to build a high-tech hub around microelectronics manufacturing.

“When it comes to semiconductor manufacturing, hands-on experience is very critical so students know how to operate equipment and develop new processes that they learn in the classroom,” Jha said. “One of our graduates helped develop the Pentium microchip. We have a great track record going back to the 1970s of our innovative manufacturing curriculum. In the cleanroom, we provide real-world, hands-on experiential learning grounded by theory in semiconductors.”

Use of the Mantei Center Cleanroom isn’t limited only to those interested in semiconductor projects. The facility offers equipment for use in a wide array of research work. 

“We have adapted advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools to serve biosciences, physics, scalable tooling, art, and thin film coatings that span across all research platforms,” said Jeffrey Simkins, microelectronics engineer. Simkins and Ron Flenniken, senior cleanroom engineer, staff the facility.  

The cleanroom has recently added additional advanced equipment to further enhance research and student training opportunities. A Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition system can deposit thin films with atomic precision. Additionally, a Direct Write Lithography system, funded by an NSF grant, allows researchers to create intricate patterns directly from CAD files without using a photomask. This technology supports the development of novel micro- and nano-scale devices on various surfaces. The facility is open to both university and industry users for collaborative research.

"Our lab would have never been able to achieve global research leadership status in consumer electronics and wearable biosensors without the Mantei Center Cleanroom and its experienced support staff,” said Jason Heikenfeld, UC professor of biomedical and electrical engineering. “Furthermore, the cleanroom has been a vital resource to multiple local startups who would not have been able to make Southwest Ohio their home without the cleanroom's unique capabilities.”

Featured image at top: Students work in UC's Mantei Center Cleanroom. Photo/Corrie Mayer/CEAS Marketing.  Wajeeh Khan contributed to this story.