About the facility
The Leeds Nanotechnology Cleanroom is a leading facility for nano- and micro-fabrication. The cutting edge 800 metre-squared facility is equipped with an extensive array of advanced tools and staffed by a team of specialist experts.
The cleanroom provides a controlled environment where external contaminants, such as microscopic pollutants like dust and dirt, are eliminated. Factors such as temperature, humidity and airflow are also regulated to protect the integrity of sensitive materials and improve experimental accuracy and precision.
Our cleanroom supports a wide range of research and innovation projects, such as the pre-production and prototyping of new and innovative electronic devices, biomedical sensors and diagnostic platforms. Cleanrooms play an integral role in the development of semiconductor materials and quantum technologies.
This facility is part of the Henry Royce Institute and is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Funding and access options
If you’re from another academic institution, a research technology organisation, or a UK-based SME, you may be able to access the Leeds Nanotechnology Cleanroom through Royce’s equipment access schemes.
If you’re a researcher based at the University of Leeds, enquire to explore access options. If you’re a business, learn more about access options for our facilities.
Available equipment
- Electron beam lithography suite featuring a JEOL 6300FS EBL system capable of patterning sub-10nm structures.
- Photolithography bay incorporating four ISO 4 (Class 10) lamina-flow wet benches for organic processing, recirculating cabinets for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) processing and temperature-controlled cold development, an MLA 150 maskless lithography system, an EVG 610, MJB 3 mask aligners and Sapphire MegPie megasonic cleaning and development system.
- Metrology bay, which hosts a range of techniques including atomic force microscopy, stylus profilers, 3D optical profilers, optical reflectometers and scanning electron microscopy.
- Deposition bay, including physical vapour deposition (PVD) and sputtering systems, thermal and electron beam evaporators, wafer and die bonding instruments, and a rapid thermal annealer.
- Wet etch bay, incorporating four ISO 4 (Class 10) lamina-flow wet benches for acid and base processing, with a further two for electroplating.
- Dry etch bay, with inductively coupled plasma (ICP), reactive ion etch (RIE) and ion beam etching capability, in addition to chemical vapour deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition ALD and plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) instruments.
- Test and packaging rooms, for “dirty” processing, including a broad range of packaging and finishing capabilities and direct current to radio frequency (DC-to-RF) characterisation.
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