November 2, 2007 – Yale U. has dedicated a new $8 million, 2600-sq.-ft cleanroom facility for its Center for Microelectronics Materials and Structures for fabricating micro- and nano-scale devices for engineering research. The Center serves over a dozen research groups, nearly 40 students in engineering, and an increasing number of collaborators.

“The number of Yale faculty members who are using micro- and nano-devices in their research has grown dramatically in recent years,” said Paul Fleury, dean of the Faculty of Engineering, “and so has the need for a facility where these devices, with their ever-finer spatial detail and complexity, can be fabricated.”

The new cleanroom will enable many kinds of novel research and will benefit other university programs, especially those associated with the Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering, and the Yale National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, according to Prof. Robert Schoelkopf, co-director of the center. Facilities include equipment for optical lithography and photomask production, dry- and plasma-etching, with nearly 1000 sq. ft of Class 100 space.

“The original facility was a tremendous boost to our research capability in the 1980s, and the new cleanroom reflects the considerable advances in technology since then,” added the center’s other co-director, Prof. T.P Ma. “It ensures Yale will remain on the cutting edge of this research.”

With direct funding from the Yale Provost’s office, construction began in early 2007 after a year of planning. Two professional technical staff members have also been added to provide support for users of the facility.