PARC launches cleanroom services for electronics R&D partnerships
PARC (Palo Alto, California), a Xerox company, has opened new cleanroom facilities for use by corporate research departments, government agencies and start-up companies to develop prototype electronic devices and novel technologies quickly and cost-effectively.
PARC’s shared “cleanroom-as-a-service” centre was designed to enable partners to develop and test new thin-film electronics and optoelectronic devices. PARC provides end-to-end processes to design and fabricate a wide variety of active devices. This distinction makes the PARC Cleanroom one of the few facilities worldwide that can prototype display and imaging thin-film transistor backplanes which are compatible with manufacturing facilities.
The PARC Cleanroom is equipped with a wide range of tools that allow for unique processes such as deposition, electroplating, etching, wafer bonding and sputtering. In addition, PARC Cleanroom clients can draw on PARC’s expertise in working with semiconductor thin-film materials including amorphous silicon, metal oxides, low-temperature polysilicon and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
“The new cleanroom gives PARC’s partners a newfound ability to develop and test exciting products in the areas of printed organic semiconductors, flexible electronics, nanowire devices, and solar cells,” said Bob Street, PARC senior research fellow and manager of the Printed Electronic Devices area.
“Many large technology manufacturers already have advanced cleanrooms in place, but very few facilities are readily available to those who need small and medium-sized research and development capabilities to develop next-generation electronic devices,” said Noble Johnson, PARC research fellow and manager of the Optoelectronic Materials and Devices area. “Using these advanced tools, our expert staff is poised to help clients with their prototype designs, simulation and fabrication.”
In the field of optoelectronics, PARC specialises in the growth and processing of aluminium gallium indium nitride semiconductor materials, using metal-organic chemical vapour deposition. Dedicated facilities at the PARC Cleanroom are also available for the fabrication of laser diodes and light-emitting diodes that operate in the visible and UV spectrums.
Caption: PARC’s new cleanroom enables the development and testing of new products in flexible and printed electronics (photo: PARC)