The new electron beam writer housed in the Nano3 cleanroom facility at the Qualcomm Institute is important for electrical engineering professor Shadi Dayeh’s two major areas of research. He is developing next-generation, nanoscale transistors for integrated electronics; and he is developing neural probes that have the capacity to extract electrical signals from individual brain cells and transmit the information to a prosthetic device or computer. Achieving this level of signal extraction or manipulation requires tiny sensors spaced very closely together for the highest resolution and signal acquisition. Enter the new electron beam writer. Ryan Anderson, a process engineer for the Nano3 facility in the Qualcomm Institute, prepares to remove a sample from the Vistec EBPG5200 electron beam writer. Photo credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Electron beam (e-beam) lithography enables researchers to write very small patterns on large substrates with a high level of precision. It is a widely used tool in information technology and life science. Applications range from writing patterns on silicon and compound semiconductor chips for electronic device and materials research to genome sequencing platforms. But the ability to write patterns on the scale afforded by the Nano3 facility—with its minimum feature size of less

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