How to access labs, equipment, and processes

Please review this flow chart, which provides an overview of how to access labs, equipment, and processes at Canadian universities.

Download Flow Chart as PDF

Hands-on training courses

Before you can use a Canadian MNT lab, you will need to obtain the following training:

WHMIS training:

Overview: Workplace Hazardous Material Information System training should be completed by the researchers who are planning to access cleanroom facilities since they will be in contact with controlled and hazardous materials.
How to access: Most universities provide this certification. Please contact the Health and Safety department in your university.

 

 

Lab safety training:

Overview: Before accessing the labs, researchers should go through a safety lab training to learn the basic procedures in a cleanroom environment. Further training sessions are required to use a specific equipment that is required to conduct the desired fabrication process. Researchers can apply for financial assistance for travel to attend those training sessions and the MNT facility that they pick.
How to access: Contact the lab manager.

 

 

Training Events:

• ECTI Training (University of Toronto): http://www.ecti.utoronto.ca/education.htm
• Connaught Summer Institute in Nanofabrication: http://www.ecti.utoronto.ca/events/coming.htm
• Cleanroom introduction (The Nanofabrication Laboratory - University of Western Ontario): http://www.uwo.ca/fab/
• A Guide to Electron Microscope Training and Access (The Nano-Imaging Facility – Simon Fraser University): http://nanoimaging.sfu.ca/training/

Getting started materials

The following is a list of documents and websites that will help you get started with labs, equipment, and processes. Do you know of additional resources that should be linked here? Send us an E-mail.

• CMC application notes about micro nano technologies and processes
  • Using a pcell to Create a Comb Actuator in Cadence Virtuoso
  • Design, Make and Test a Piezoresistive MEMS Strain Sensor
  • How to Create Three-Dimensional Micromachined Structures Using Grey Scale Masks
  • A GUI Code to Simulate Thermal Flexure Actuators
  • Additional microsystems application notes
• Glossary of common micro nano technology terms
• Useful links
• Recommended textbooks
  • Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering by Nadim Maluf
  • Fundamentals of Microfabrication: The Science of Miniaturization, Second Edition by Marc J. Madou
  • Microsensors, MEMS, and Smart Devices by Julian W. Gardner, Vijay Varadan, Osama O. Awadelkarim
  • The MEMS Handbook - 3 Volume Set - by Mohamed Gad-el-Hak