- Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR)
- MEMS Sensors and Actuators Lab (MSAL)
- Nano-Bio Systems Laboratory (NaBSLab)
- Maryland NanoCenter
- FabLab
- NISPLab
- Other Maryland NanoCenter Facilities
- IREAP Fabrication Facility
- Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP)
- Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS)
- Center for Nanomedicine and Cellular Delivery (CNCD)
- Other School of Pharmacy Facilities
Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR)
Professors Payne and Bentley have adjacent laboratories in the Plant Sciences Building on the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Dr. Payne's lab is equipped for chemical and physical analysis, and is equipped with a spectrophotometer, FTIR spectrometer, HPLC, rheometer and electrochemical instrumentation. His group has access to NMR and mass spectrometry through core facilities in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry (located across the street from the Plant Sciences Building). Professor Bentley's lab is equipped for molecular biology, with fermentors, electrophoresis, and fluorescence spectrometer. IBBR is equipped with shared instruments for ultracentrifugation, fluorescence microscopy, and gel imaging. In addition, IBBR has a core laboratory for DNA sequencing. Recently, IBBR expanded their operation in a state-of-the-art laboratory at Shady Grove (an approximately 30 minute drive from College Park). In addition to laboratories for individual investigators, the Shady Grove facility provides core facilities for microarray analysis, plant transformation, and insect transformation.
MEMS Sensors and Actuators Lab (MSAL)
Web Site: www.ece.umd.edu/MEMS/
Directed by Professor Ghodssi, MSAL was established in January 2000. A variety of MEMS-based processing tools are currently fully functional in the class-100 microfabrication room at MSAL that include a Quintel model Q4000-6 contact mask aligner with precision front-to-back alignment capability for lithography, a P1 Tencor profilometer, a temperature-controlled silicon micromachining bath, a Samdri supercritical CO2 dryer, a polymer-processing station with programmable spinner, a Lindberg 1200C box furnace, and an electroplating bath. MSAL also houses a number of testing and instrumentation equipment that include a Veeco NT1100 model optical profilometer with both static and dynamic measurement capabilities (nano to micron level) for both MEMS and NEMS devices, a MEMS-based probe station with a high power microscope, two class-100 characterization stations, and a state-of-the-art Nikon digital camera and a Leica stereomicroscope. In addition, simulation and modeling software (MEMCAD, FlumeCAD, ANSYS, L-edit, FemLab and AutoCAD) are installed on fourteen SUN and DELL workstations in MSAL for design and analysis of MEMS devices and systems.
Nano-Bio Systems Laboratory (NaBSLab)
Professor Rubloff is completing the reconfiguration of lab space directly adjacent to the Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP) as an integrated laboratory for microfluidic bioMEMS research. A Zeiss 310 confocal microscope equipped for fluorescence as well as visible light and confocal microscopy, provides high resolution digital images and video of bioMEMS operations. A new Zyvex L200 nanomanipulator system provides nanoscale actuation and measurement capability, including four 4-axis probes, each with 12 mm travel: two are electrical/mechanical probes with 5nm positioning precision, while the other two provide fluid injection/extraction microcapillaries with 100nm positioning precision, with potential for a broad variety of electrical, mechanical, optical, and chemical measurements at the nanoscale. Our microfluidic device and package systems are observed and manipulated at the microscope, including use of a system control unit for fluidic, electrical, and optical inputs/outputs. A Perkin-Elmer Optima 4300DV ICP optical emission spectrometer system is located at the microfluidics station to carry out chemical analysis of output fluid streams and/or optical spectroscopy from integrated optics systems in the bioMEMS. A combinatorial biomaterials deposition and functionalization cell is used for real-time studies of electrical and optical reflectivity changes which accompany the fabrication of the chitosan surface platform and its subsequent surface functionalization.
Maryland NanoCenter
Web Site: www.nanocenter.umd.edu
Maryland NanoCenter brings together researchers from the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the College of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciences. Its mission is to enhance the coherence and effectiveness of the College Park nano and nano-bio communities by promoting nanotechnology leadership, technology development, and visibility while providing experimental, information, and financial infrastructure. Its experimental centerpiece is the Kim Engineering and Applied Sciences Building, a 160,000sf structure opened in September 2005, that brings Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) and UMCP Facilities together a major clean room facility for nano- and micro-fabrication (FabLab), advanced microscopy instruments (NispLab), exploratory tools for materials synthesis and characterization, and bioengineering laboratories.
FabLab
Web Site: fablab.umd.edu
The Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) is located in the new Kim Building as a central facility for advanced clean room (class 1000) facility for nano- and micro- fabrication. It includes an extensive array of tools for physical and chemical deposition, oxidation/annealing/diffusion, wet and dry etching, lithography, wafer bonding, planarization, characterization, and testing. The FabLab also includes a teaching cleanroom and an exploratory process area. FabLab is operated as a shared user facility by Maryland NanoCenter staff.
NispLab
Web Site: nisplab.umd.edu
The Nanoscale Imaging, Properties, and Spectroscopy Laboratory (NispLab) is located in the new Kim Building as a central facility for advanced microscopy, with capabilities including a new JEOL 2100 high resolution field emission transmission electron microscope (TEM)with analytical instrumentation directly suited to structural and chemical analysis of nanoparticle and nanostructures, and a JEOL 2100 LaB6 TEM targeted at biological research. NispLab also houses a JEOL 8900 electron microprobe and the scanning tunneling microscope portion of the new Keck Laboratory, also in the Kim Building. NispLab is operated as a shared user facility by Maryland NanoCenter staff.
Other Maryland NanoCenter Facilities
Web Site: www.nanocenter.umd.edu
The Maryland NanoCenter also includes a wide selection of other shared and dedicated research tools and laboratories on the College Park campus. Users can access listings of available equipment at the Maryland NanoCenter equipment database (www.nanocenter.umd.edu/equipment.php). A listing of Maryland NanoCenter-related laboratories is also available at www.nanocenter.umd.edu/labs.php. The Maryland NanoCenter provides a substantial level of support for the community in using these laboratories and equipment within them, whether as open/shared or restricted-use mode.
IREAP Fabrication Facility
Web Site: www.ipr.umd.edu/iprweb/research.htm
This class-100 clean room facility currently supports micro- and nano-processing for MEMS/microsystems, materials, and semiconductor device research. It houses the following state-of-the-art MEMS equipment:
- an inductively coupled plasma tool for deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) processes,
- an aligner and bonder machine for both precision lithography and aligned wafer-level bonding research,
- a chemical mechanical polisher for wafer alignment and bonding, multilevel MEMS structures, novel structures with conformal coatings, and systemson-chip, and
- an RF sputtering tool for deposition of both thin film metal and dielectric films. electronics, bioscience and bioengineering, and sensor/actuator systems.
Already managed by the FabLab staff, these tools will be physically moved to the FabLab in 1Q06. IREAP also houses the strongest focused ion beam (FIB) facility in the country in its Laboratory for Ion Beam Research and Applications (LIBRA) of which Professors Jon Orloff and John Melngailis are the co-directors. LIBRA has two FIB systems for micromachining and MEMS applications, one with 7 nm resolution and the other with 20 nm resolution (the latter incorporating a high resolution SEM for auxiliary imaging), as well as a high voltage (150 kV) FIB implanter for direct fabrication of small circuits using As or B ions.
Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP)
Web Site: www.mse.umd.edu/LAMP/
Directed by Professor Rubloff and established in 1997, LAMP is a microfabrication and advanced processing laboratory. It features nanoprocessing capabilities in the form of three chemical vapor deposition systems, enabling low temperature atomic layer deposition of dielectrics and metals, coupled with real-time in-situ chemical sensing using mass spectrometry, FTIR, and acoustic sensing techniques. With consolidation of fabrication facilities in the Maryland NanoCenter FabLab in the new Kim Building, the clean room processing space in LAMP is currently being redeveloped as an expansion of bioMEMS fabrication processes together with MSAL.
Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS)
Web Site: www.lps.umd.edu
LPS is a major Federal research laboratory operated by UMCP. Current programs carried out jointly with UMCP faculty are aimed at nanodevices and nanobiotechnology. LPS offers sophisticated facilities to its faculty and student collaborators, from research instrumentation to clean room fabrication and characterization tools. Its state-of-the-art class-10 cleanroom includes a 5X GCA ALS i-line stepper, Karl Suss contact aligner, PlasmaTherm (Unaxis) RIE and ICP, Oxford Plasmalab PECVD-RIE, Oxford HDCVD, Leica Cambridge electron-beam lithography system, CHA electron-beam metal evaporation system, flip-chip bonder and various wet processing equipment. Its instrumentation capabilities include confocal Raman spectroscopy, a variety of scanning probe microscopies, and surface analysis instruments for chemical and structural analysis.
Center for Nanomedicine & Cellular Delivery (CNCD)
Web Site: www2.pharmacy.umaryland.edu/centers/nanomedicine/
Directed by Dr. Peter Swaan, the Center for Nanomedicine and Cellular Delivery (CNCD) is a campus-wide organized research center with emphasis on targeted delivery of bioactive agents and diagnostics. Among the core equipment available for research are Malvern Zetasizer 3000 and a Malvern High Performance Particle analyzer for characterization of surface charge, size, hydrodynamic volume and aggregation behavior of nanomaterials. A GE AKTA FPLC size exclusion chromatography system with UV and Refractive Index based detection is available for purification and molecular weight determination of nanomaterials and biomacromolecules. A Waters HPLC system with UV and fluorescence detector is available for analysis of stability of nanomaterial bound biomolecules.
The CNCD fosters a multidisciplinary research environment that includes members of faculty from the University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB), the Greenebaum Cancer Center, the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), and the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR). The CNCD has access to all the individual and shared resources of these faculty members, as well as access to other shared facilities within the School of Pharmacy (see below).
Other School of Pharmacy Facilities
The Confocal Microscopy Core facility is utilized for in vitro uptake studies with nanomaterials. It houses a Nikon C1 tethered to an E800 upright and a TE2000E inverted fully motorized microscope. The C1 can be used for most confocal applications with a wide choice of fluorochromes, such as "green" fluorescence protein (GFP) imaging, time-lapse experiments, (co-)localization studies and live-cell imaging. The C1 confocal system scans 4 channels (3 fluorescence and 1 transmitted light) simultaneously, and consists of an Argon laser (488nm) for detection of FITC, BODIPY, GFP, and Oregon Green dyes, and two Helium Neon lasers (Green (543 nm) for detection of TRITC, PI; and Yellow (594nm) for Texas Red. The Image Quant Pro software is used for image capture and analysis.
A centralized Mass Spectrometry facility is available to readily determine the molecular mass of small molecules as well as macromolecules. It is equipped with a Thermo Finnigan liquid chromatography mass spectrometer (LC/MS) and a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) spectrometer and is ideally suited for the quantitative analysis of small molecules (up to 2 kDa) in biological liquids and molecular mass determination of novel chemical entities, such as synthetic molecules resulting from a drug discovery program. A Bruker Daltonics OmniFlex™ MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer with reflectron and post-source decay (PSD) capabilities is also available. This high-throughput equipment (100 sample ion source) is capable of accurately and rapidly determining the mass of high molecular weight molecules (peptides, proteins, DNA, synthetic polymers) up to 80 kDa. The reflectron option increases the resolution and accuracy of this particular machine three- to four-fold over conventional MALDI-TOF equipment.
Other shared facilities at the School of Pharmacy for biological research (cell based and in vivo) include six tissue culture rooms, with CO2 Air-Jacketed incubators, ten Upright -86 degree Ultra low freezers, eight -30 Upright Forma Freezers and a central animal housing facility with several procedure rooms.