September 16, 2009
The University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering officially opened a state-of-the-art nanotechnology research lab Sept. 16. It will allow scientists and engineers to create next-generation devices that could significantly impact healthcare, information technology, clean technologies, digital media, and the automotive industry.
The heart of the new facility is a $6.5 million Electron Beam Lithography system, a tool that can define features as small as 10 nanometres – about 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The facility is one of only two of its kind in Canada, and will be open to both academic and industrial researchers across the country. The Electron Beam Nanolithography Facility was built and equipped with contributions from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation, as well as contributions from numerous industry partners.
“The McGuinty government is proud to support the next generation of leaders in the field of nanoscience,” says Minister of Research and Innovation John Milloy. “Driven by the principle of collaboration, this world-class centre will help advance new knowledge and new discoveries that will lead to new jobs, innovative new businesses and a more globally competitive Ontario.”
The opening of this new facility greatly enhances the University of Toronto’s nanotechnology research capacity, a capacity instrumental to the future economical development of Ontario and Canada. The ability to control, pattern, and modify matter at the atomic scale, and the synergies such capabilities engender will greatly enhance Ontario and Canada’s standing in numerous fields of engineering, science, and medicine. The facility will foster new collaborations between academia and industry and will enable the university to recruit top-flight faculty members and train the next generation of highly skilled workers
With the National Science Foundation forecasting growth in the nanotechnology market to $1 trillion by 2014 and with 1.8 million additional workers required by 2015, there is great potential for the University of Toronto to contribute to the development of this technology.
Some of the projects already making use of the facility are aiming to develop better detection and sensor technologies. Professors Mo Mojahedi, Stewart Aitchison, and PhD student Muhammad Alam are prototyping and testing a device to efficiently generate and guide a hybrid of light and electron oscillations – called surface plasmons – using an extremely compact setup. Such technology, once fully developed, will have a great impact on applications for health care (cancer detection), information technology (more compact optical and electronic devices), and the aerospace and automotive industries (better and cheaper gas sensors).
“Providing researchers with the tools they need to undertake leading-edge research is what the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is all about,” said Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the CFI. “The research advancements and knowledge sharing that this new facility will enable are sure to have a real and positive impact for all Canadians.”
“We are very excited about the new addition to our micro- and nanofabrication facilities at the Emerging Communications Technology Institute (ECTI). We can now provide the full suite of tools for end-to-end micro- and nanofabrication and testing. Our new electron beam facility presents a quantum leap in these capabilities,” says ECTI Director Professor Mo Mojahedi.
“Many researchers across the university and outside have already begun to use our new facility to fabricate better sensors to be used in detection of leukemia, lung cancer, bacteria and viruses, more compact and efficient optical and electronic devices, and more efficient gas sensors. We are very optimistic about the future and expect ECTI will play a leading role in developing and transferring novel technologies which will greatly impact Ontario’s economy for years to come.”
To guarantee exceptional performance of the tool, the facility is located in the basement of the Wallberg building, ensuring very low mechanical vibration. The tool is enclosed in an environmental chamber that provides stringent temperature control: the lab temperature is set to 21ºC (plus or minus 0.25ºC) with a maximum rate of variation equal to 0.1ºC per hour. The environmental chamber is certified as a Class 100 cleanroom, which means that the number and size of dust and other particles is greatly reduced, providing a low-contaminant environment for research and device development.
“U of T Engineering has been a pioneering leader in nanoengineering. We introduced the world’s first undergraduate degree in nanoengineering, and opened the first nanoengineering research centre in a Canadian University. This new facility will continue to propel our research and educational strengths in this field and will also help grow Canada’s innovation agenda,” said Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto.
“We are extremely grateful for this investment from the province, CFI, and industry partners.”
The nanolithography facility will be operated by the University’s Emerging Communications Technology Institute (ECTI), and will enable ECTI to expand its national and international partnerships and collaborations.
