16 March 2015

Plasma-Therm's Advanced Vacuum processing equipment selected by University of Central Florida's CREOL institute for photonics program

Plasma-Therm LLC of St Petersburg, FL, USA says that its Advanced Vacuum division in Lomma, Sweden (which supplies vacuum solutions including thin-film plasma etch and deposition systems) has been selected by the University of Central Florida (UCF) to provide enhanced compound semiconductor etch and dielectric deposition capabilities.

Established in 1987 as Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) and a college since 2004, UCF's College of Optics and Photonics provides research facilities for users from universities and industry locally and internationally from a wide range of disciplines. In addition to serving a key role in the university's academic mission, the center encourages commercialization of internal and external research efforts.

The Advanced Vacuum APEX SLR etching system combines Plasma-Therm's Shuttlelock plasma reactor technology with the cost-effective APEX platform. The recently installed APEX SLR complements CREOL's Plasma-Therm equipment, which supports the fabrication of devices for next-generation optical communication. Deposition capability at CREOL will soon be enhanced by an Advanced Vacuum Vision 310 system, complementing a Plasma-Therm PECVD (plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition) system. These systems will be used to generate light-emitting, detecting, modulating and guiding devices required for chip-to-chip communication.

"The decision to select Advanced Vacuum's APEX and Vision systems was based on several factors, including the high quality and reliability of the products, very competitive quotes for the required specs, the company's reputation, and their long partnership with UCF," comments CREOL's professor Sasan Fathpour, the principal investigator for the federal grants for acquisition of these and other tools.

"We are thankful to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for providing grants that led to the purchase of these tools. These systems contribute to CREOL's Nanophotonics Systems Fabrication Facility capabilities for conducting advanced academic research and basic industrial R&D in integrated photonics, and better position the college to compete for research opportunities in areas such as heterogeneous photonics," he adds.

"It will also facilitate our competitiveness in larger efforts, such as the ongoing IP-IMI proposal," Fathpour continues, referring to the federal Integrated-Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation, an initiative with potentially more than $230m in private and public funding to transform the integrated photonics industry into a highly manufacturable ecosystem. UCF is the leading institute for one of only three national teams selected by the US Department of Defense as finalists for the IP-IMI.
"Our equipment and partnership will contribute to achieving the important fabrication goals in the area of heterogeneous photonics integration," comments Plasma-Therm's principal scientist Dr David Lishan. 

Tags: Plasma-Therm

Visit: www.plasmatherm.com

Visit: www.Advanced-Vacuum.com

Visit: www.creol.ucf.edu