Biomedical Engineering - Facilities

The Biomedical Engineering Initiative draws on Newcastle University’s extensive facilities for biological testing and the conduct of proof-of-principle studies, as well as full clinical trials of developed tools and devices. Nanofabrication and microelectronics facilities based on campus include:

Biomedical engineering clean room image picture of EECE Clean Room
  • Nano Materials and Electronics Laboratory (NanoMEL) that includes: class 100-10000 fabrication clean room housing a 200 mm cluster tool for ALD and metal deposition for novel gate stacks, and class 100-1000 clean room for SiC and interconnect research; Climate controlled electrical and material characterisation facilities containing: DC and RF 200 mm probe stations for varied C-V and I-V analysis to 67GHz; AFM, XRD, SEM, nanoindentation and a state of the art AFM/Raman system with tip enhanced Raman (TERS) capability. This has recently demonstrated strain measurement with 25 nm spatial resolution which is amongst the best in the world. Si device fabrication is done off site through collaborations with Atmel, Innos, KTH, IMEC, Zetex, Sematech.
  • Mechanical and Systems Engineering MEMS laboratories equipped for SiC high temperature MEMS; integrated profilometry and vibrometry for rapid testing at both wafer and packaged levels which is the most advanced in the country; optical measurement, laser-doppler vibrometry, white light interferometry; gyroscopic and inertial sensing; multi-mode resonators for mass sensing and biomedical applications; pico-Newton force measurement; piezo-electric vibration sensing and analysis.
  • Nanotechnology Facilities at INEX include a 230 m2 clean room, including a class II microbiological facility for both inorganic and hybrid bio-inorganic, micro- and nano-device fabrication, packaging, and evaluation, and a 120 m2 microbiology / chemistry / materials synthesis laboratory equipped with facilities for lithography, plasma etching, metallisation and CVD processing, including Raith 150 e-beam writer, and test and analysis equipment including scanning force microscopy.

Other facilities within the region include the Plastic Electronics Technology Centre at NETPark, a national prototyping institute for the development and commercialisation of printed electronics.