NANOSTRUCTURE FABRICATION OF SOLID STATE DEVICES

AS THE DIMENSIONS OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES APPROACH ATOMIC SCALES, A RANGE OF NEW QUANTIZIED PHENOMENA APPEAR. ONE SUCH EFFECT, COULOMB BLOCKADE, REPRESENTS A FRONTIER AREA OF RESEARCH IN APPLIED NANOSCIENCE. HOWEVER, DIFFICULTIES IN FABRICATING DEVICES SMALL ENOUGH TO DEMONSTRATE QUANTUM BEHAVIOR HAVE RESTRICTED PROGRESS IN THIS FIELD. DURING PHASE 1, AVOCA LABORATORIES PROPOSES TO DESIGN AND FABRICATE A SINGLE ELECTRON TRANSISTOR CAPABLE OF DISPLAYING COULOMB BLOCKADE EFFECTS. ELECTRON-BEAM LITHOGRAPHY WILL BE USED IN DEVICE FABRICATION, AND CUSTOM SOFTWARE WILL BE DEVELOPED TO ALLOW DESIGN OF FUTURE DEVICES. FABRICATION WIL BE PERFORMED AT THE NATIONAL NANOFABRICATION FACILITY, WHERE AVOCA LABORATORIES IS AN APPROVED INDUSTRIAL USER. AVOCA EMPLOYEES MAKE FREQUENT USE OF THIS FACILITY IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES.