ProtoMEMS has a business model that Saves You Money! ProtoMEMS fabricates micro/nano - scale devices at the Cornell NanoScale Facility (the CNF) in Ithaca, NY. Unlike a conventional foundry, ProtoMEMS is not burdened by the skyrocketing costs of owning and maintaining the latest and greatest nanofabrication equipment. With ProtoMEMS, you have intimate access to a world-class foundry on a rent-by-the-hour basis. By way of example, let’s say you need 25nm resolution in one of your device layers but you can’t justify the cost of purchasing and maintaining an Electron Beam Lithography system (which costs millions of dollars). ProtoMEMS can rent a few hours on the Ebeam tool in the CNF on your behalf and get your devices made, all at a fraction of the cost you would pay if you had to purchase, maintain and operate the equipment yourselves. In this way, ProtoMEMS can fabricate complex micro/nano- scale devices at a fraction of the cost that an industrial foundry might charge. When “our” tools are sitting dormant, you’re not paying for them!

At ProtoMEMS, we specialize in few-wafer lots using 4inch, 6inch (and on occasion, 8inch) wafers. Mostly, we work with 4inch wafers (many different materials) for doing custom, prototype runs of new devices while developing a new process. After completion, you will receive the CAD, all of the Process Documentation (with step-by-step details of the entire fabrication process) and the Completed Wafers. There’s no holding back of any technical information. You get the flow rates, exposure times, chamber pressures…all of the nitty gritty details that you need to make the devices yourselves. And, when it comes time to transition the devices to a larger, industrial foundry, we can help you with that as well.

ProtoMEMS is the place to be when you’re just starting out with a back-of-the-envelope idea. We can transform your idea into real patterns using CAD and produce the necessary masks. We can expose the wafers using these masks and etch or deposit the patterns onto them. After numerous other steps, we will fabricate the devices you seek and test them. Upon completion, we will deliver the devices, including all of the fabrication details and test data. And then, we might start the whole process over again, making changes along the way and constantly refining the process to get it just right. In the end, you’re in the driver’s seat with us explaining your options each step along the way.