NaMLab gGmbH

The NaMLab gGmbH is located in a vibration-cushioned building with both lab space and office areas. The lab space comprises a 330 m² of clean room with at least class 6, a 50 m² yellow lighted area with at least class 5, and 4 labs with 25 m² each.

Major equipment for process technology:

• 2 Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) systems for oxide and nitride material deposition
• 1 CVD/RIE Cluster Tool with overall 24 different process gases
• 1 Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP) Reactive Ion Etching Tool
• 5 Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Tools (1 UHV Sputter Cluster; 1 HV Sputter Cluster, 2 Small Scale Sputter Tools; 1 Evaporator)
• 5 different anneal ovens; including rapid thermal processing (RTP) for different temperature ranges and materials
• 1 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) / Molecular Beam Deposition (MBD) cluster tool for ultra-pure GaN materials
• 1 Hydrid Vapour Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) for bulk GaN growth
• 1 MOCVD Tool for GaN layer growth
• 1 Laser Cutter for sample preparation
• 1 Laser Lithography Writer
• 1 Electron Lithography Writer with 3-D sample imaging option

Major electrical equipment:

• 2 Industry-standard full automatic probe stations both for 8 and 12 inch wafers
• 3 Manuel / semiautomatic probe stations for small scale samples
• 1 High-Voltage Probe Station
• 1 RF-Probe Station
• 1 Dark-box station for combined electrical/optical test
• 1 Cryogenic probe station

Major analysis equipment:

• 1 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX) and Electron Back-Scatter-Diffraction (EBSD) options
• 1 Atomic Force Microscope
• 1 X-Ray Diffractometer
• 1 Photoluminescense System
• 1 Raman System

NaMLab develops materials for future electronic devices. We run industrial as well as basic research projects and provide services in the areas of sample preparation, electrical and physical characterization. Sample fabrication ranges from small scale (typically 4x4 cm or below) up to 150 mm wafers. Physical characterization is typically carried out on small scale samples. Electrical characterization is done by direct probing on wafer level using single probes, probe cards or special RF-probes. Package level testing can be performed for long-term reliability characterization or the adoption of our devices in test-circuits.

 Typical services comprise, but are not limited to:

• Laser cutting of wafers
• Deposition of thin films or stacks of thin films
• Processing of capacitor structures
• Processing of test structures for GaN wafer characterization
• Physical characterization, electrical or optical characterization by any of the methods described below

The established electrical characterization methods at NaMLab include:

• Analysis of single memory cells (memory window, retention, endurance, …) in DC, AC, and pulsed measurement modes (down to 20 ns)
• Determination of transistor and capacitor characteristic curves by C-V and I-V measurements 
• Reliability characterization of dielectric and transistors (TDDB, HCI, BTI, SILC, and more)
• Defect characterization by charge pumping and charge trapping, analysis, and defect spectroscopy
• Dynamic Hysteresis Measurements, .e.g. (PUND) , thermally stimulated discharge current (TSDC) and impedance spectroscopy
• Measurement of charge carrier mobility with Hall and split-C(V)
• Determination of sheet resistance for thin layers
• RF small-signal measurements up to 20 GHz; also combined with reliability methods
• Load pull setup for Large Signal RF-Reliability (1 GHz up to 6 GHz)
• RF self-heating characterization (9 kHz – 4.5 GHz)
• Power device characterization up to 3000 V

The physical characterization methods established at NaMLab include:

• X-ray diffraction (XRD)
• High-Resolution Scanning Electron Microscope (HRSEM), with EDX (energy dispersive X-Ray) and EBSD (Electron Back Scatter Diffraction) for Material and Texture Analysis
• Atomic force microscope (AFM)
• Conductive AFM (C-AFM) mode investigate the local leakage current density
• Determination of doping profiles by scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM)
• Piezo force microscopy (PFM)

Further, the following optical methods are established at NaMLab:

• Low-temperature photoluminescence (15 – 300 K) in the UV – visible spectral range (340 nm – 800 nm) with UV (325 nm) laser excitation
• Spectral response with and without bias illumination for photosensors and solar cells
• Micro-Raman mapping with 457 and 514 excitation wavelength (spatial resolution: 1 µm) e.g. local strain analysis
• IR and VIS-NIR ellipsometry
• Microwave detected photoconductivity for 2D mapping of minority carrier lifetimes in silicon
• Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy (2000 – 20000 nm) for analyzing lattice and molecular vibrational bands