Tours of SNF Cleanroom

Tours of the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) Cleanroom are now offered in a variety of formats, including new live, interactive webcam-tours to classrooms. See our research equipment and facilities, and researchers working in their cleanroom gowns on the latest micro and nanotechnology. Our cleanroom, originally dedicated exclusively to integrated circuit (computer chip) fabrication, now provides researchers with the tools to fabricate a wide spectrum of current technologies, including nanoelectronics, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), optics, microfluidics, and biological and chemical applications.

SNF is primarily a "top-down" fabrication facility using photolithographical techniques, as used by computer chip manufacturers, to produce very small structures. So while you won't see carbon nanotubes being grown (those and other "bottom-up" fabrication methods are done in surrounding faculty labs), you will see a Class-100 cleanroom and learn how researchers are fabricating and studying a wide variety of micro and nanostructures in this world-class facility.

For background information on this facility and the equipment and processes used, see our Virtual Cleanroom Tour Page. Also download a pdf version of a Powerpoint Presentation on Nanotechnology to learn all about what it is, how structures are fabricated, and some applications.

See the list below for the different types of tours available, and then look at the bottom of this page for instructions on requesting tours for your group. With most of these tours, we can also add an introductory presentation in our auditorium using the Powerpoint Presentation on Nanotechnology mentioned above. And for students we can do a "gowning-up" activity outside the cleanroom for a few of your group in conjunction with the guided window tour.

1. Window Tours (Guided) - Our 10,000 square foot cleanroom is surrounded on three sides by windows. On this tour, one of our staff guides you around the outside where you can look into the various areas and see the equipment and researchers at their work. This tour takes about 30 minutes, including questions for your guide.

2. Window Tours (Self-Guided) - If we can't arrange for a tour guide, you can still take the window tour using our self-guiding posters positioned in the appropriate locations around the outside of the lab. Read about different topics and then look in through the windows to see where that activity is actually done. (The posters can be downloaded above from our Virtual Cleanroom Tour page.) Start the tour at the corner of the Cleanroom near the main entrance to CIS, across from the Packard Building.

3. Gown-up Tours - In this tour we have you actually "gown-up" and enter into the clean room. See close-up the equipment and fabrication activities. Maybe even talk to a researcher. However, due to limitations on time and staff, and due to the inherent distraction in the cleanroom, this tour is only given on a very limited basis. The gown-up tour takes about an hour, and we can only give it in groups of 8 maximum at a time.

4. Live, Remote Webcam Tours - This is something new and is available to classes that can't visit our facility in person. Using a high-resolution, high-speed network cam, we webcast live video to your classroom and at the same time talk with your class via a telephone. The camera is mobile so by taking it around the cleanroom (see figure at right) we can give you a live remote tour of the cleanroom. We can also talk to researchers who will tell about their work and answer questions your class may have for us. All your classroom needs is a browser with high-speed internet, a projector so the whole class can watch, and a speakerphone so we can talk back and forth with you. The images at the bottom right are actual screen captures (what the students saw in their classrooms), and there is only a second or less in delay in the live video stream.

We've had great success with this in our previous demonstrations with this, and are now offering this on a limited basis. It takes about an hour for a session, and there is some minimal pre-session testing of your browser and phone equipment required.

5. Georgia Tech Live Cleanroom Cams - If we can't arrange a live webcam tour from SNF, a great alternative is to view the Georgia Tech Live Cleanroom Cams. Georgia Tech is a partner of ours in the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), and we have developed live webcam cleanroom activities with them. They have a series of 12 high-resolution webcams positioned throughout their nanofabrication cleanroom (similar to SNF), and you can view these live webcam video images anytime you wish. Simply go to their See the Cleanroom web page. By clicking on the various rooms on their cleanroom map, different webcams are accessed. (Note: Quicktime is required for viewing these - a link for downloading it is given at the link above.)

If you are interested in a tour, please email Mike Deal or Maureen Baran the following information:

For getting to the SNF facility, see our Visiting SNF webpage.

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