The Cleanroom Where It Happens

With a full spectrum of state-of-the-art microfabrication equipment, processes and services for the UC Davis campus and local industrial community, the Center for Nano-MicroManufacturing, or CNM2, enables nanometer-scale lithography, deposition, etching and characterization capabilities for research in micro-electro-mechanical systems, photonics, heterogeneous integration, optoelectronics, quantum nanophotonics and more. 

CNM2 houses a 10,000 square-foot ISO 5 (Class 100) cleanroom, offering a broad line of microfabrication, analytical and characterization equipment to support device manufacturing for a variety of industries and applications. The facility is tooled to accommodate substrates ranging from six-inch wafers to small pieces for various substrate materials. 

With available cleanroom space and tool bandwidth, CNM2 supports leading-edge scalable research and development in electronics, materials and life sciences, such as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Erkin Şeker’s project to map the neural networks that connect the brain and gut.

In addition, the center is well positioned to contribute to artificial intelligence hardware research and semiconductor workforce development efforts as a member of the California-Pacific-Northwest AI Hardware Microelectronics Commons Hub, an initiative of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Explore CNM2 and other UC Davis facilities

This article was originally featured in the Spring 2024 Engineering Progress Magazine.