News

31 May 2010

 

UC Berkeley orders Aixtron Black Magic system for CNT and SiGe nanowires

Deposition equipment maker Aixtron AG of Aachen-Herzogenrath, Germany has received an order for a 4-inch Black Magic deposition system from the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Capable of both silicon germanium (SiGe) nanowire and CNT (carbon nanotube) deposition, the system will be installed in the Laboratory for Nano Materials & Electronics by the local Aixtron support team in first-half 2010.

“The Black Magic system was selected for its unique ability to grow both SiGe nanowires and CNTs uniformly, rapidly and repeatably,” says Ali Javey, assistant professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “This system will be very useful for our research in achieving large-scale synthesis of nanowire arrays for integrated electronics and sensors,” he adds.

Research underway at the UC Berkeley Laboratory for Nano Materials & Electronics covers a range of science and engineering disciplines but focuses on the integration of synthetic nanomaterials, such as CNT and semiconductor nanowires, in novel electronic applications, such as printed electronics, sensors and flexible photovoltaics. In 2009, Javey won the ‘Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) Innovators Award’ and was also a recipient of a ‘2009 Young Innovators Under 35’ (TR35) award from the Technology Review magazine.

More Black Magic

Earlier this month, Aixtron reported Black Magic tool orders from the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) and the US start-up Porifera.

Aixtron’s six-inch Black Magic wafer system has already been installed and commissioned in the Materials Joining Laboratory of SIMTech.

Dr Wei Jun, group manager of SIMTech’s Joining Technology Group said: “The Black Magic platform has a worldwide reputation for being a scalable platform for CVD and PECVD of carbon nanomaterials. This system will play a vital role in our reseach into next-generation CNT interconnects, components for chip packaging, FETs, diodes and sensors.”

Porifera’s Aixtron Black Magic tool has been installed at the firm’s facility in Hayward, CA, USA. The tool will be used for the development of water filter membranes based on CNT.

Dr Olgica Bakajin, chief technology officer and founder of Porifera, said: “Having evaluated various equipment options for the production of aligned CNT films, we quickly reached the conclusion that the Aixtron Black Magic system offered the most flexibility, best uniformity and process control. These were the key requirements for Porifera’s production of next-generation separation membranes.”

Porifera is developing CNT membranes for critical applications, including water purification and carbon sequestration. The firm is the exclusive licensee of this technology, which was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Porifera says that its vision is to harness the unique properties of CNTs to improve membrane performance, enabling affordable and plentiful fresh drinking water worldwide.

See related item:

ETH Zurich orders Aixtron Black Magic tool

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