San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure

San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure
Name	San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure
Formation	2004
Type	Research infrastructure; user facility
Location	San Diego, California
Parent organization	University of California San Diego

San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure The San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure is a distributed nanofabrication and characterization user facility centered at the University of California San Diego that supports academic, government, and industrial research in nanoscience and nanotechnology. It provides access to cleanrooms, instrumentation, and expert staff to investigators from institutions such as the University of California system, California Institute of Technology, and private firms including Qualcomm and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The facility interfaces with national initiatives like the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure and international programs involving institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

Overview

The San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure operates as a shared user facility offering access to microfabrication, nanofabrication, metrology, and materials synthesis platforms used by researchers affiliated with the University of California San Diego, San Diego State University, Scripps Research, and federally funded laboratories including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Its service model parallels other regional facilities such as the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility, the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility, and the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard, and it participates in consortia with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy. The facility supports projects spanning collaborations with industry partners like Intel, IBM, Applied Materials, and Micron Technology, and academic networks including the California NanoSystems Institute and the Kavli Institute for NanoScience.

History and Development

Founded in the early 2000s as regional nanotechnology infrastructure, the organization evolved alongside milestones at the University of California system, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and federal investments from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. Key developments were influenced by partnerships with research centers like the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Jacobs School of Engineering, and the Moores Cancer Center, and by technology transfers involving entities like Qualcomm Ventures and ViaSat. The facility’s growth tracked advances at laboratories such as Bell Labs, Sandia National Laboratories, and Argonne National Laboratory, and benefited from academic leadership connected to institutions like Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Facilities and Resources

The infrastructure includes Class 100 and Class 1000 cleanrooms, electron microscopy suites with equipment comparable to installations at the Max Planck Institutes and the German Electron Synchrotron, lithography systems akin to tools used by ASML, focused ion beam instruments similar to products from FEI Company, and scanning probe microscopy platforms employed at the National Center for Electron Microscopy. Core resources list nanoimprint tools, atomic layer deposition systems paralleling those at Oxford Instruments, molecular beam epitaxy chambers used at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and spectroscopy instruments comparable to facilities at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Staff scientists maintain instrumentation and workflows inspired by best practices from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Salk Institute, and the Broad Institute.

Research Programs and Projects

Active research programs span nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, nanophotonics, quantum materials, and biomedical nanotechnology, with project collaborations referencing work at IBM Research, HP Labs, Google Quantum AI, and Microsoft Research. Projects often coalesce around faculty from the Jacobs School of Engineering, the Department of Physics at UC San Diego, the Division of Biological Sciences, and translational efforts with Rady Children’s Hospital, the Scripps Clinic, and Illumina. Representative initiatives interface with large-scale programs such as the Materials Project, the Center for Emergent Materials, the Quantum Initiative at the White House, and international efforts at ETH Zurich, Imperial College London, and the University of Tokyo.

Collaborative Partnerships and Industry Links

Partnerships include collaborations with semiconductor firms like Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Broadcom, and NXP Semiconductors, and instrumentation suppliers such as Bruker, Horiba, and JEOL. The infrastructure supports sponsored research and commercialization pathways involving technology transfer offices at the University of California, San Diego, startup incubators like CONNECT, and venture capital firms with ties to Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins. Strategic alliances extend to defense-related contractors such as Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, and BAE Systems, and to multinational consortia including the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative.

Education, Training, and Outreach

Training programs provide hands-on instruction for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and industry users, coordinated with academic programs at UC San Diego, San Diego State University, and community colleges like Mesa College. Outreach activities include workshops with professional societies such as the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and classroom partnerships with the San Diego Unified School District and the Girl Scouts of the USA. Workforce development links to regional initiatives run by the San Diego Workforce Partnership and regional tech clusters including the San Diego Biotechnology Network and BioCom California.

Governance, Funding, and Administration

Governance is administered through administrative offices at the Jacobs School of Engineering and coordinated with the Office of Research Affairs at the University of California system, receiving core funding from the National Science Foundation, fee-for-service revenue from industry partners, and grant support from agencies like the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Advisory input comes from external advisory boards that include representatives from academia, industry, and national laboratories such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, with strategic planning informed by regional economic development groups including the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation.

Category:Nanotechnology facilities