The Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center (SVEC) has more than 8,000 square feet of laboratory space in 3 buildings on the University of Houston campus. The SVEC facilities contain over 3 million dollars in equipment dedicated to thin film deposition, processing and characterization of III-V compound semiconductor, high temperature superconductor and ferroelectric oxide material systems. The equipment is a combination of commercial and custom built systems that allow the production of state-of-the-art thin film material structures and devices. The offices and a majority of the laboratory space is located in the Science and Research 1 building. SVEC also has equipment and offices in the Houston Science Center and the Cullen College of Engineering buildings.

Epitaxial Deposition Facilities
SVEC has 2 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) deposition systems and a Chemical Beam Epitaxy (CBE) system located in a class 10,000 cleanroom. One MBE system is dedicated to III-arsenide and III-antimonide material systems. The CBE system is set up for III-arsenides and III-phosphides. These two systems are connected by transfer chambers to a class 100 cleanroom. Samples are mounted and loaded in the class 100 environment and then are transferred under vacuum to the deposition chambers. The other MBE system is dedicated to III-nitride deposition and is a stand alone system. It also has custom surface analysis systems installed so that the surface environment under deposition conditions can be observed.

A class 1,000 cleanroom is located adjacent to the class 10,000. Inside the class 1,000 is a class 100. The class 1,000 cleanroom is used for sample preparation and mounting.

In addition to the above deposition systems, SVEC facilities include 2 other III-nitride systems. One nitride system utilizes an e-beam boron source, an ECR and ion beam nitrogen sources while the other nitride system uses metal organic sources. SVEC has a laser ablation deposition system for high temperature superconductors and a Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) system for high temperature superconductors and ferroelectric oxides.

Processing Facilities
SVEC has a number of systems dedicated to processing. In the class 1,000 cleanroom there are 2 thermal evaporators dedicated to metal deposition, 2 barrel etchers/ashers, a profilometer and a wire bonder. In the class 100 we have 2 mask aligners and a spinner. Additional systems used in processing include 2 e-beam deposition system, an ion mill, 2 Reaction Ion Etching (RIE) systems and a Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) system.

Characterization Facilities
SVEC has a variety of characterization tools to analyze both the thin film material deposited and the devices fabricated from the thin film structures. Characterization tools include Hall mobility, I-V and C-V, Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS), 3 Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy systems covering the range of UV to the mid IR and temperature from 2K to 300K and a FTIR. SVEC has a spectral response and solar simulator (100K to 400K temperature range) to characterize solar cells. SVEC also has a high resolution x-ray diffractometer with wafer mapping capabilities for physical characterization of the thin film structures. In addition, SVEC has a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS).