Materials science and engineering
4D LABS works with academic and industrial researchers to move new technologies from the benchtop to the marketplace in a range of fields, including clean energy, information technology, health and medicine and telecommunications. Aside from a range of materials-specific academic laboratories, 4D LABS also hosts three user facilities that are accessible to all researchers in academia, industry and government. These three user facilities include a clean room for microfabrication and nanofabrication, an electron microscopy centre and an advanced laser laboratory. Together, the user facilities are a means to design, build and fully characterize new materials and devices all under one roof. There are a variety of ways to work with 4D LABS. Researchers may elect to be fully trained and perform all aspects of their device design, building and testing it themselves, or may contract 4D LABS to do some or all of the work for them or may collaborate with a 4D LABS faculty member. To date, 4D LABS has worked across the full range of industrial sectors in a variety of ways. 4D LABS has partnered to develop high-efficiency solar cells, leading-edge lighting, nanomaterials for security features, biofluidics and a myriad of other devices.
Additive technologies, proof of concept/proof of commercial concept, product enhancement/transformational technologies, Modelling, Simulation, Prototyping, manufacturing design and development, analytics, photonics, Information and telecommunications technologies, industrial instrumentation, alpha and beta testing, characterization, failure analysis, materials testing
- Aerospace and satellites
- Chemical industries
- Clean technology
- Education
- Energy
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Forestry and forest-based industries
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Manufacturing and processing
- Mining, minerals and metals
- Professional and technical services (including legal services, architecture, engineering)
Specialized labs and equipment
| Specialized lab | Equipment | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Physical vapour deposition (PVD) equipment | Thin film deposition by sputtering or evaporation |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Low-pressure and atmospheric tube furnaces
| Oxide and nitride film depositions |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Fiji F200 Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) System | Thin film deposition |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Wafab Electroplating wet bench | Metal coatings |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Sono-Tek Spray Coating System | Polymer or nanoparticle coatings |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Raith Electron Beam Lithography System | Nano-scale patterning |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Laser writer | Micron-scale direct write patterning |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Mask aligners | Micron-scale patterning |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Mask writer | Photomask fabrication as a service |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Nanoimprinter | Pattern replication and stamping |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Wafer bonder | Silicon and glass wafer bonding |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility |
Wet benches | Wet etches available for metal, oxide, and silicon wet etching; cleaning chemistries available for substrate and pre-deposition cleans |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Deep reactive ion etcher (DRIE) | Deep silicon etching |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Reactive ion etchers | Dielectric (fluorine-based) and metal (chlorine-based) dry-etch chemistries |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | XeF2 etcher | MEMS silicon release |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Ellipsometer
| Thin film characterization |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Reflectometer | Film thickness characterization |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Profilometer | Surface topography measurements |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Laser machining system | Micromachining of parts and microfluidic devices |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Critical point dryer | MEMS release |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Dicing saw | Wafer segmentation |
| Fabrication and Prototyping Facility | Probe station | Electrical characterization of devices |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Helios Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) | Uses an electron beam to image samples and determine elemental composition (EDX) spectroscopy. Cryo and low vacuum capabilities enable a variety of materials to be analyzed. |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Nova NanoSEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) | Uses an electron beam to image samples and determine elemental composition (EDX) spectroscopy. Cryo and low vacuum capabilities enable a variety of materials to be analyzed. |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Explorer Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) | Uses an electron beam to image samples and determine elemental composition (EDX) spectroscopy. Cryo and low vacuum capabilities enable a variety of materials to be analyzed. |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Tecnai Osiris Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope with high-brightness field emission gun (200 keV X-FEG) | Scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Investigate internal structure, including crystallinity and defects with compositional analysis (EDX). |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Zeiss ORION NanoFab Helium Ion Microscope | This microscope especially excels in imaging non-conductive samples due to charge compensation technology. You can also gain new insight from your material with a 5 to 10 times greater depth of field compared to images acquired with FE-SEMs. |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Atomic force microscope (AFM) | Scanning probe microscope (SPM). Creates atomic-resolution topographic maps of material surfaces that may include electronic properties and can be used to manipulate atoms or molecules. |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Focused ion beam (FIB) in tandem with Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) | Used for cross-sectioning or fabricating small devices |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) system | Advanced spectrometry for compositional analysis, including XPS, Auger spectroscopy, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) systems |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) system | Trace elemental analysis including laser ablation capabilities |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | X-ray diffractometer (XRD) | Crystal structure determination for materials |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) system | Small-angle x-ray characterization useful for measurements on polymers, particles, proteins, and other materials with nanometer-scale structure |
| Materials and Device Testing Facility | Fuel cell test stations | Analysis of single-cell fuel cell performance |
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | Pulsed laser systems | Spanning X-ray to infrared wavelengths, from nanosecond- to femtosecond-pulse durations |
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | X-ray absorption spectroscopy system | |
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | Terahertz spectroscopy system | |
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | Two-photon laser scanning confocal microscope | For advanced imaging |
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | Transient absorption spectroscopy system | |
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | Fluorescence lifetime measurement systems | Capable of probing time scales from milliseconds to femtoseconds |
| Electron Imaging and Holography Facility (EIHF) | Tecnai F20 Transmission Electron Microscope equipped with a Field Emission Gun (200 keV FEG) | Scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Investigate internal structure, including crystallinity and defects with compositional analysis (EDX). |
| Electron Imaging and Holography Facility (EIHF) | FEI Strata DB235DualBeam Focused Ion Beam/Scanning Electron Microscope | Dual-beam SEM/FIB system with 3nm resolution |
Private and public sector research partners
- Cooledge Lighting Inc.
- Photon Control Inc.
- Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperative
- Nanotech Security Corp.
Additional information
| Title | Hyperlink |
|---|---|
| Laboratory for Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) | https://lasir.ca/ |
| Electron Imaging and Holography Facility (EIHF) | http://www.sfu.ca/eihf.html |