Nanotech West Laboratory (NTW) is the largest, most comprehensive micro- and nanofabrication user facility in Ohio. The 36,000-square-foot shared user facility is open to both academia and industry. Managed by IMR, NTW is an extensively equipped and fully staffed space where researchers can access laboratories and equipment, as well as take advantage of in-house training, process and project support. NTW’s user-accessible facility resources include a 6,000-square-foot cleanroom, major shared facilities for semiconductor and oxide epitaxy, materials and device characterization, and shared labs for research of energy storage materials and devices.
Driven by IMR’s Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability Discovery Theme and its strategic faculty recruitment, NTW continues to expand its impact by continually installing new equipment and lab enhancements to support cutting-edge capabilities and additional research thrusts. Developing laboratories that continue to expand capabilities offered within the user facility include: IMR’s Innovation Lab (dedicated to collaborative industry interactions and outreach), the Mid-Infrared Characterization and Application Lab (enabling infrared pixel and full array characterization), the Energy Storage Hub (dedicated to battery related materials synthesis and test) and the metal organic chemical vapor deposition lab (providing semiconductor and oxide epitaxy).
Research activities at Nanotech West span a range of cutting-edge materials research that is rather extraordinary for a single facility – from GaN/AlGaN and β-Ga₂O₃ materials and devices, solar cells and infrared focal plane arrays to microfluidics, biotechnology, material synthesis, and testing for energy storage and the fabrication of structures for use in the study of basic physics and chemistry. As the primary IMR location on Ohio State’s West Campus, NTW provides substantial impact and continues to be a centerpiece of collaborative research to the university’s materials research community.