Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The goal of this proposal is to obtain funding to acquire a vacuum probe station and a network/spectrum analyser in order to establish a facility for characterisation of micro- and nano-transducers and materials at Simon Fraser University. This facility will immediately serve at least ten research teams from four departments at SFU. The requested vacuum probe station and the network/spectrum analyser will be used jointly for the majority of the intended research. At a reasonable cost, this facility provides the means for experimental research on characterisation of new devices and materials, verification of the theories, and insight into the fundamentals of operations of micro- and nano-devices. There is a significant amount of collaboration among the ten applicants and their teams. We are demonstrating that the requested equipment will be extensively used by a large number of users from Microelectronics and Mechatronics programs in the School of Engineering Science as well as the Departments of Physics and Chemistry at SFU. More than 20 research programs, encompassing the work of more than 50 researchers, will directly benefit from the establishment of this facility. It is anticipated that numerous multidisciplinary research programs will benefit from existence of this facility in future. Other academic researchers will be able to use the facility on a reservation-based arrangement without a user-fee. To serve the current research programs of the applicants and to enable future research, it is necessary to purchase and install this facility within our laboratory.