Tag Archives: Eric Deguns

PEALD at Simon Fraser University’s 4D LABS

Cambridge NanoTech and 4D LABS, located in Vancouver, Canada, have made a deal. (The PEALD in the title for this posting stands for Plasma-enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition system.) From the Sept. 13, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,

4D LABS, a research institute for innovation in the design, development, demonstration and delivery of advanced materials research at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and Cambridge NanoTech announced today a strategic partnership as they work together to develop new and novel precursor applications for real world use. 4D LABS’ Nanofabrication Facility through the financial support of NSERC [Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council], CFI [Canada Foundation for Innovation], BCKDF, and SFU expands their capabilities with the addition of Cambridge NanoTech’s Fiji Plasma-enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system.

This is very exciting as it builds on my July 11, 2011 posting which featured the development of the PEALD process. It had just been announced that researchers at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) developed it collaboratively with the Finnish company, Picosun Oy.

Here’s more about the equipment SFU’s (Simon Fraser University) 4D LABS have purchased from Cambridge NanoTech,

The Fiji, capable of both thermal and plasma processing, will enable users of the 4D LABS Nanofabrication Facility, a Class 100/ISO 5 clean room, to develop new thin film technologies and processes. “This is the first ALD system as part of an open access user facility in British Columbia and will be available to users from a diverse range of fields,” explains Byron Gates, Director of the Nanofabrication Facility at 4D LABS. “We support both academic and industrial users in 4D LABS, assisting them with their materials research and development needs by working with them on a one-on-one basis. These needs can span from a new material or component, to a final device or system. Plasma ALD offers even more options in terms of the range and the quality of the films we can deliver.”

As for future collaboration,

The collaboration includes plans to further advance material development by creating new chemical precursor and processes for ALD to be co-developed by Cambridge NanoTech, SFU’s Department of Chemistry, and 4D LABS. “We’ve already begun planning our first films development project,” explained Eric Deguns, Senior Research Scientist at Cambridge NanoTech. “Our films development will be focused on electronics and clean energy applications, and films that will be finely tuned to meet specific device needs. By expanding our precursor applications, we will be able offer new materials that can be deposited through ALD onto everyday products.” These materials are being sought for their novel electro-optical, photo-elastic, piezoelectric, and non-linear properties.

I look forward to hearing more about 4D LABS as this collaboration progresses.