Construction officially begins of new ECS clean room complex

Exactly a year to the day after fire destroyed the Mountbatten Building and clean room, demolition teams have moved on to the site to prepare for the construction of the new building. The new state-of-the-art facility is being designed and constructed with the needs of future generations of researchers in the School of Electronics and Computer Science and Optoelectronics Research Centre at the forefront. The new facility will be interdisciplinary and provide flexible research space for fabrication and characterization of materials. Although based on Silicon fabrication technology and largely using Silicon substrates, the new building will enable researchers to concentrate primarily on structuring and modifying materials at the nanoscale. These materials will include Silicon, but will also enable polymers and more exotic materials such as Zinc Oxide, high-refractive index metallic oxides, and lithium niobate, to be nanostructured. The work will create a new generation of unique nanodevices and applications to satisfy the ever-increasing needs of society. The new building will include research laboratories and offices, and will be fully linked at all levels to the existing Zepler Building. Construction of the new building is scheduled to be completed by early 2008.