The Advanced Electronics and Photonics Core Facility (AEP) provides comprehensive electronics capabilities bridging the high risk, resource-intensive gap between innovation and product development in an information-secure environment. AEP offers backplane electronics design, fabrication, test and integration capabilities, and operates dedicated pilot line toolsets for technology development and technology demonstrator production.
Advanced Electronics and Photonics began as the Flexible Electronics and Display Center (FEDC), a public-private consortium intended to bring flexible displays and flexible electronics to production capability. The FEDC was very successful over the 15 years of its existence of pushing the boundaries of flexible electronics. Many of the staff from the FEDC remain on hand to help guide new projects from the design phase through full prototyping.
Located in the ASU Research Park, AEP houses more than 43,500 square feet of Class 1,000 and Class 10,000 cleanroom space and an additional 22,000 square feet of wet/dry lab space housed in a 250,000 square foot total building footprint. AEP is making available many of the resources utilized by the FEDC in the production of flexible displays and flexible electronics. A wide range of processing and metrology equipment commonly found in a thin film transistor FAB is available for use at AEP.
The available metrology equipment set includes ellipsometry, reflectometry, profilometry, infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, four-point probe, contact angle, film stress and defect analysis.
The processing equipment set includes photolithography, acid and base etching, reactive ion etching, downstream plasma etching, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), sputter deposition, thermal and ion beam assisted evaporation, inkjet printing, organic material spray coating, laser ablation, substrate cleaning, and temporary flexible substrate bonding with adjustable adhesion strength to eliminate need for de-bonding equipment, chemicals or post de-bond cleaning. AEP can also assist with photomask design, device assembly (specifically TAB bonding), and device characterization (I-V sweeps).
Training and equipment is scheduled through iLab. Create an account by following the instructions on the iLab home page. Once you have an account, you can schedule equipment and training through the AEP Core iLab page.