UNSW is home to a vast array of world-class of nano and micro-fabrication tools, which are available to manufacturers looking for an edge in product development.
Brent Balinski spoke to ANFF NSW’s Dr Nadia Court about the Kensington lab. Australia, and in particular Sydney, has emerged as an area of great quantum computer expertise. Last week the University of Sydney opened a $150 million nanoscience hub (including a $10 million quantum lab), attended by Microsoft senior executives.
On Friday, fellow sandstone university UNSW officially had the PM open its new Centre for Computation and Communication Technology. UNSW has been at the forefront of the race to build a quantum computer since the 1990s, focusing on a silicon-based approach to fabrication.
Last October researchers using facilities at the UNSW-headquartered Australian National Fabrication Facility announced they had built a quantum logic gate in silicon – the worlds’ first – getting two quantum bits in silicon “to talk to each other”.
The material, with a half-century-plus history in shaping the world of computing, could be ready to do it all over again. Its history means a head start over other methods for constructing a computer, with trillions of dollars and many, many careers already invested in silicon manufacturing.
“We know we can do it because we’ve basically done it with the whole computing industry,” Dr Nadia Court, Projects Manager at the ANFF NSW Node, told PACE. The facility, opened in 2008, is very much involved in making super-small-scale stuff for quantum applications. However, this is only a portion of what goes on at the network of laboratories within UNSW’s Newton Building.
Nanowire wrap-gate transistor work tackles the challenge of fitting more and better transistors onto a circuit, with the end of Moore’s Law something we’re approaching.
The micro and nanofabrication centre hosts 750 square metres of lab space, more than half of this cleanroom area. The four cleanroom spaces are classed ISO 5, 6 and 7, and are kitted out with over $30 million of state-of-the-art equipment.
A recent addition was a molecular beam epitaxial growth laboratory, opened by education minister Simon Birmingham last October. Importantly, the facility is open access, both to outside researchers and to industry, with highly specialised equipment available nowhere else to industry users.
This includes two tools for high-quality molecular beam epitaxy, able to grow novel, atom-depth materials. Both are open access. “The III-V (3-5) MBE specialises in epitaxy of compound semiconductors and is currently the only open access III-V MBE system in Australia,” pointed out Court. (III-V refers to elements in the third and fifth columns of the periodic table.)
There is another open access II-VI compound semiconductor MBE system at the WA node of ANFF in UWA. “The second ‘Laser MBE’ tool [at ANFF NSW] specialises in oxide epitaxy and is also the only open access tool catering to these materials,” Court added.
Assistance with R&D
Among users of the lab’s expert fabrication capabilities is the country’s only semiconductor manufacturer, Silanna, who use ANFF NSW for left-of-centre bits of development. “They’ve got their R&D own facility and have got a cleanroom setup primarily for R&D,” explained Court. “They really only need us when they have a niche that doesn’t suit their R&D.”
Sensing start-up Zedelef (a university spin-out with clients in defence, and oil and gas) is another guest at the UNSW labs.
It has used access to develop its hybrid liquid/crystal optical fibre devices, cutting out on the need to invest in capital expense. “For them we’re providing fee-for-service subscription but also access for their researchers to do assembly of their devices and their prototyping development,” added Court. “They also have access to process engineering staff for helping process development.”
Expert process engineers and training, as well as tool time, are available for hire at the site. (Rates are available from the facility via enquiry.)
ANFF concedes that industry use is below what it could be, and makes up about a tenth of the hours spent at its facilities (there are eight nodes around the country).
As representatives from other publicly funded facilities will sometimes say, it can be difficult to get noticed by smaller manufacturers, who are often uninterested in or intimidated by the idea of visiting research institutions.
Recent projects
Much of the work that takes place at the site is around semiconductors and advanced nanoelectronics. Some of it has gained global attention, and one effort could perhaps redefine the way electric current is defined.
Nanowire wrap-gate transistor work tackles the challenge of fitting more and better transistors onto a circuit, with the end of Moore’s Law something we’re approaching.
Another piece of work at the nano-scale was around creating a quantum-dot transistor – a silicon electron pump – able to pump 500 million electrons per second at 99.997 per cent accuracy.
The limit of how small transistors can be made is getting nearer, and chip companies have taken to building these up into 3D structures. “The problem is once you go smaller and smaller you can potentially also get leakage out – it’s only constrained at three sides, not four,” explained Court of electron flow.
Research using electron beam lithography (ANFF NSW possesses three EBL machines) to align the gates and interconnects, as well as the structures contacting the nanowire, show the potential of horizontal nanowires, which are tipped over after being chemically “grown” upwards. “What the guys from UNSW have been doing with collaborators in Sweden is [based on] ‘what happens if you just knock those nanowires over?’
And then we can have a look at reducing complexity,” said Court. “Basically what they did is to show that for two, three, five transistors they see no degradation in the performance of the transistors.
But that’s only one fabrication step, as opposed to maybe five or six individual fabrication steps per transistor.”
Another piece of work at the nano-scale was around creating a quantum-dot transistor – a silicon electron pump – able to pump 500 million electrons per second at 99.997 per cent accuracy.
It is hoped that such a quantum device will be able to improve in accuracy further still and serve as a way of redefining the basic unit of current, the amp. “It’s kind of cool that we might be potentially in some way linked to a quantum standard for electrical current,” offered Court, who said the work was currently being optimised using gallium arsenide.
And of course, the facilities’ atomic-level precision fabrication capabilities will continue to be used as the university sprints towards the goal of a working silicon-based quantum computer. It hopes to have a 10-qubit prototype up and running within five years.
ANFF concedes that industry use is below what it could be, and makes up about a tenth of the hours spent at its facilities (there are eight nodes around the country).
The expertise in this field both at the university and within Australia is starting to get a lot of attention, including from private enterprise.
Following the announcement last October, for example, both the Commonwealth Bank (which already invested $5 million in 2014) and Telstra announced $10 million of support for the project. “That was all made here at UNSW,” Court proudly pointed out of the logic gate. “And I think Australia is starting to get known for how good they are at quantum computing.”
ANFF NSW
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