The lab consists of a cleanroom area of approximately 50 square meters (class 1 through 100) with an airlock, an equipment room and an office area. The following microstructuring techniques and devices are being used in the lab:

• Photolithographic processes (image reversal resist technologies, thick resist technologies with SU-8, various standard resist technologies)
• Double-sided mask aligner (Karl Süss; contact and proximity exposure)
• Wet-chemical isotropic and anisotropic etching techniques (for silicon)
• Wet-chemical etching techniques for glasses
• Dry-etching techniques (reactive ion etching)
• Coating techniques (plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition)
• Automatic wafer scriber (Karl Süss)

The following equipment, among others, is used for characterizing microstructures:

• AFM-STM CP2 (Park Scientific)
• Dektak profilometer for measuring vertical heights and analyzing surfaces
• Precitec CHRocodile optical sensor for surface measurement
• Several optical microscopes with CCD camera, image processing etc.

The laboratory is closely associated and cooperates with other labs, especially with the engineering optics, vacuum technology and spectroscopy and electron microscopy labs. Projects as well as courses frequently resort to their resources as well – from these labs' equipment to their measuring techniques and know-how.

The Laboratory Class

As a rule, the laboratory class consists of a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part reviews and expands familiar knowledge from the microsystem components lecture to prepare students for the practical laboratory part. In addition, the theoretical part teaches microstructuring techniques that can not be carried out in our university's cleanroom. During the practical part, students do supervised work on microstructuring silicon wafers. The wafer is coated, exposed, developed and etched, and the resulting structures are then characterized with the measuring techniques available in the lab. In addition, students carry out individual projects in pairs as independently as possible and prepare a presentation on these projects.

Research & Development

Whether in research and production or in respect to new materials and functionalities, micro- and nano-structuring play an increasingly important role in the industry. The physical engineering department regularly conducts research and development projects with other institutions of higher education, with industrial enterprises, research institutes or independently.

These projects are of special interest to students as they can provide the opportunity of gaining valuable scientific experience, for example as a work-study student, as graduate research assistant or project staff.

For more information on the lab's activities, have a look at the homepage of the Institute of Microtechnologies.