NORDTECH Funds Six Advanced Tools at UAlbany Innovation Lab

A woman's face is blurred in the foreground as she looks at computer screens with gray images that show heavily magnified computer chip designs.
The Dual Beam SEM/FIB system installed at CNSE's Innovation Lab allows students and researchers to precisely cut and measure new nanoscale devices. Here, a student examines a sample using a scanning electron microscope. (Photo by Brian Busher)

By Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

ALBANY, N.Y. (April 1, 2025) — Six new high-tech tools for microchip engineering, measurement and testing are being installed at the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering (CNSE) Innovation Lab thanks to $7.4 million in funding that resulted from the U.S. CHIPS & Science Act.

Two people in white cleanroom suits insert a silicon wafer into the drawer of a white lab tool.
A new Rapid Thermal Annealing tool helps researchers manipulate the properties of semiconductor devices by rapidly heating them to very high temperatures and slowly cooling them down. (Photo by Brian Busher)

The tools were funded by the Northeast Regional Defense Technology Hub (NORDTECH), which is part of U.S. Department of Defense’s Microelectronics Commons, a network of regional R&D hubs created to maintain the U.S. competitive edge in key fields related to semiconductors and microchip design.

UAlbany, NY CREATES, IBM, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University are the five founding members of NORDTECH. The Innovation Lab, led by UAlbany’s Department of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, is located at the NY CREATES Albany NanoTech Complex.

The new tools will assist CNSE researchers, students and NORDTECH’s research partners in many aspects of microchip design and prototyping, including lithography, the process used to create the intricate patterns needed to precisely build each atomically thin layer of a chip. 

One of the new systems will use a combination of electron and ion beams to precisely cut and then measure newly fabricated nanoscale devices — a process known as metrology, which is critical for evaluating materials and validating new designs.

Semiconductor Workforce Development

“These major equipment investments in our Innovation Lab are essential to supporting our mission of education and workforce development at UAlbany,” said Nathaniel Cady, CNSE’s associate dean for research and a member of NORDTECH’s governing committee. “Our national efforts to stimulate U.S. chip manufacturing and research require a knowledgeable, well-trained workforce. Expanding our fabrication and testing capabilities with these advanced new instruments gives us the tools we need for education, training and groundbreaking R&D.”

A person in an all white cleanroom suit holds up a silicon wafer in front of a large piece of lab equipment.
CNSE graduate student Fernando Pesantez Torres prepares to use a new maskless lithography tool to expose a silicon wafer to ultraviolet light, creating a miniaturized pattern on its surface. (Photo by Brian Busher)

Collectively, the tools are critical to NORDTECH’s ability to transition technologies from the early phases of discovery and proof of concept, all the way to prototyping and testing. This lab-to-fab process is the primary goal of the Microelectronics Commons and the NORDTECH hub. Through NORDTECH’s Lab-to-Fab Innovation Fast Track (LIFT) Program, NORDTECH members can propose new wafer and chip processing ideas to pilot in NORDTECH’s core fabrication facilities, including CNSE’s Innovation Lab.

“NORDTECH has the goal of enabling a robust lab-to-fab pipeline of microelectronics projects to support the reshoring of the chips-centered ecosystem to the U.S., and by investing in additional tools at our core member facilities, such as these at the University at Albany, this will provide greater capabilities to bridge technological gaps and enable impactful R&D by professors and students,” said NORDTECH Technical Director Nicholas Fahrenkopf. 

The NORDTECH-funded tools include:

  • Dual Beam SEM/FIB system manufactured by Thermo Fisher
  • Rapid Thermal Annealing tool manufactured by Surface Science Integration
  • Atomic Layer Etch system manufactured by Oxford Instruments
  • Deep Reactive Ion Etch system manufactured by Oxford Instruments
  • Maskless Lithography system manufactured by Heidelberg Instruments
  • Physical Vapor Deposition system manufactured by KJ Lesker

Combined with two other new tools funded by UAlbany’s Center for Advanced Technology in Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics (CATN2), the NORDTECH-funded instruments are part of nearly $10 million in upgrades planned or underway at the CNSE Innovation Lab.

The Innovation Lab is not just a research hub; it is a key part of CNSE’s workforce development for New York’s growing semiconductor sector, providing undergraduate and graduate students critical hands-on access to processes central to microelectronics design and production.