Infrastructure

2 State-of-the-art cleanrooms

300mm cleanroom

Delivering world-leading R&D on the next-generation technology nodes with our global partners.
All necessary 300mm equipment to allow advanced sub-7nm CMOS R&D.

Have a look at the movie here.

Facts

• Advanced Lithography centered around ASML scanner equipment 
• EUV – Extreme ultraviolet lithography (read more)
• DSA: Directed Self Assembly  (press release)
• State-of-the-art etch, implant, clean, metrology, deposition, ... equipment from leading-edge OEMs
• Ballroom type of cleanroom
• Total area: 7,200m2
• 3,200m2
• Extended with 4,000m2 in 2016 (press release)
• Class 1,000
• Operational 24/7
• Process monitoring, cycle time improvement, quality control

200mm cleanroom

Development on demand for products for which heterogeneous integration is needed

• Flexible platform to fabricate prototypes: process steps that are not available off-the-shelf in a foundry
• Low-volume production

Facts

• Silicon pilot line with a 130nm TLM CMOS baseline process on 200mm wafers
• Processing on Si and on alternative substrates such as III-V materials, organic semiconductors, SiGe …
• 3D-IC and 3D-WLP stacking IC baseline flows:
  • Die-to-die bonding,
  • Die-to-wafer
  • Wafer-to wafer-bonding
• All processes for heterogeneous integration:
  • Bonding
  • Grinding
  • Thick Cu plating
  • Deep Si etch
  • Litho with back-to-front alignment
  • ...
• GaN-on-Si capabilities to process power devices
• Bay & chase type of cleanroom
• 5,200m² of which 1,750m² in class 1 area

Our goal is to continue delivering world-leading research on the next-generation technology nodes serving the entire semiconductor ecosystem. Our global partners include foundries, IDMs, fabless and fablite companies, and equipment and material suppliers.

State-of-the-art laboratories

• RF lab 
• Biolab
• Neuroelectronics lab 
• Silicon PV Lab
• Organic PV Lab
• Intel Exascience Lab 
• Ultralarge-scale-integration design methodology lab
• Microsystems lab
• Ultra-clean processing lab
• Lab for material and device characterization
• Lab for physico-chemical-analysis
• Lab for automatic device and circuit measurement
• Organic electronics lab
• Packaging and testing-equipment lab
• Reliability lab
• Hyperspectral imaging lab 
• Customized imager process line on 130nm CMOS technology

Silicon Photovoltaics Line

We have set up this unique pre-pilot line to develop and refine solar cell processes until they are ready to be transferred to production lines.

The equipment is similar to that of a state-of-the-art solar cell production environment, processing 156mm x 156mm Si solar wafers. And the throughput (more than 1.000 wafers per week) is large enough to allow valid predictions of averages, standard variations and yield.

Techniques used in the pre-pilot line include isotropic acidic texturing, reduced pressure POCL3 diffusion, large-area PECVD deposition of Si nitride, and belt furnace rapid thermal anneal.

Organic Photovoltaics Line

• Pre-pilot environment
• Allows to scale up to device sizes of 15x15cm²
• Equipped with all processing steps needed for the fabrication and characterization of state-of-the-art organic solar cells:
  • Exhaust hoods
  • Ovens and hotplates
  • Cleaning stations, purification column for zone-purification of small organic molecules
  • High-vacuum evaporation chambers with multiple sources integrated with oxygen- and humidity-controlled gloveboxes:
    • Atmosphere-controlled chambers (inert nitrogen to high oxygen) and humidity levels
    • Temperature-controlled chambers
    • Light-controlled chambers (AM1.5 solar simulator), mimicking indoor lighting conditions for performance testing
  • Multi-step programmable 8-inch spin coater, blad and spray coaters
  • Screen and inkjet printers
  • Scribing and dispensing tools to process and encapsulate monolithic modules with adjacent cells interconnected in series on a single substrate
  • Profilometry tools as well as barrier water vapor transmission equipment

GaN Processing

Unique expertise and tools for GaN processing

For its R&D, imec can rely on state-of-the-art GaN epiwafers that are fabricated in-house. We have unique in-situ growth monitoring, extended material characterization, and can evaluate materials through device performance assessments.

NERF laboratories – Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders

• Approximately 1,000 m² biolab space.
• Located on the imec campus.
• Full access to imec facilities: electronic workshop, mechanical workshop, state-of-the-art clean rooms, biolabs, ...
• Full access to the facilities of KU Leuven and VIB.
• In close proximity to Science and Engineering Departments of KU Leuven and University Hospital.

Biolabs

500m2 of laboratory space related to imec life science activities.

Surface and bioassay characterization:

• Contact angle (CA) measurements
• Cyclic voltammetry (CV)
• Grazing angle Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (GA-FTIR)
• Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)
• Surface plasmon resonance (SPR)
• Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM)
• Fluorescence labeling.
• Nanoparticle characterization
• Ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy
• Qnano^® tool
• Dynamic light scattering (DLS)
• Zeta potential measurements
• Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA)
• Dark field microscopy (DFM)
• Dot blot analysis

Biosensor setups

Commercial biosensors

• SPR devices (Biacore2000® and Biacore3000®)
• QCM system

In-house developed biosensors

• Optical biosensors (Si ring resonator, localized surface plasmon resonance biosensor).
• Nanopore biosensor
• Optical hyperthermia biosensor
• Magnetic hyperthermia biosensor 

DNA research 

Fully operational laboratory to conduct basic DNA research

State-of-the-art biological safety level (BSL)-2 laboratory

• Optical tweezer setup to manipulate single cells
• Cell and tissue culturing facilities
• Electrophysiology set-up
• Optical microscopy
• Patch-clamp confocal microscopy (PCCM)
• Fluorescence microscopy
• Confocal microscopy for living cells
• Live microscopy setup (calcium imaging and membrane integrity testing)
• Image post-processing and data analysis

Electrophysiology

• Extracellular electrophysiological multi-electrode array (MEA) setup
• 16-channel probe setup
• 4-channel clinical in-vivo recording setup with all recording, stimulation, and signal post-processing equipment
• Stereotaxic surgery setup including stereomicroscope
• Patchclamp or MEA-based (commercial and custom imec) recordings, stimulation, and electroporation
• In-vivo recordings and stimulation (commercial and imec custom probes)

Electrochemical characterization

• Multichannel multiplexed potentiostat/galvanostat electrochemical measurement system
• Cyclic voltammetry techniques for material deposition or characterization