Device Fabrication for Data Storage, Semiconductor and MEMS Applications at the University of Alabama Microfabrication Facility

Over the past two years, a Class 100/1000 microfabrication facility set up at the University of Alabama for development of a meso-scale gyroscope has been turned into a central user facility for materials and device research. We will describe a wide range of processes and devices that are being researched, fabricated and optimized in this facility. These include a) a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive (CPP-GMR) sensor, b) precisely shaped silicon tips for atom probe specimens, c) nanosphere lithography for bit-patterned graded media, d) through silicon vias (TSVs) for integration of Si and GaAs-based circuitry, and the original focus of the facility, e) a meso-scale gyroscope for general aviation. These diversely funded efforts represent research programs from the materials and electrical engineering departments, all led by female faculty members and involving several graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups. The UA Microfabrication Facility, is successfully incubating and supporting several different areas of funded as well as unfunded research that could lead to significant increases in research expenditures.