NNCI: Midwest Nano Infrastructure Corridor (MINIC)

Non-Technical Description:

Recent advances in technology have enabled new physical and chemical understanding (nanoscience) as well as new structures and devices (nanotechnology) that have great potential to positively impact the world. The Midwest Nano Infrastructure Corridor (MiNIC) will accelerate these advances by providing access to leading edge micro and nano fabrication and material characterization capabilities for the research and development of both nanoscience and nanotechnology. MiNIC facilities represent more than $80M in labs and equipment as well as more than 500 person-years of staff expertise. Academic and industry researchers can use these capabilities on an equal basis with University of Minnesota faculty. Students will gain valuable hands-on experience. Entrepreneurs and companies will enjoy low-cost access to try new ideas without long-term capital equipment commitments. While MiNIC will support a broad spectrum of nano R&D, it will target researchers in two areas. The first is the development of materials and devices for quantum sensing and computing, a field with the potential to revolutionize information technology. The second area is the application of these technologies to biology and medicine. Extreme miniaturization will enable sensing approaches that will change our understanding of biology and will also provide the ability to create intelligent devices for use inside the human body. MINIC will also reach out to underserved communities to increase their participation in this rapidly growing field. It will also support micro and nano laboratories at smaller schools throughout the Midwest to enable the development of nanotechnology over a broad geographic area.

Technical Description:

The Midwest Nano Infrastructure Corridor (MiNIC) provides access to state of the art facilities in both micro and nano fabrication and materials characterization. Among its hundreds of tools, designed to support a broad range of needs, MiNIC has highly advanced capabilities such as ultrahigh purity thin film deposition, nanoscale lithography, ultrahigh resolution electron microscopy for both hard and soft materials, and ion beam materials analysis. These capabilities are essential to the research and development of novel materials, structures, and devices. Applications include computation, information storage, sensors, light emitters, and micro-mechanical actuators. These devices will have dramatic impacts in the fields of communication, information science, renewable energy and environmental remediation, biosensing, defense, transportation, and agriculture. The site is supported by a staff of more than 20 experts with 500 person-years of experience in the field. In addition to supporting traditional users, the staff provides remote access to the facility. MiNIC will emphasize two technical areas that correspond to two of the NSF Big Ideas: Quantum Information Science (QIS) and Understanding the Rules of Life, also called Bionano. QIS will support work in superconducting and/or 2D materials to create high-performance high-stability nanoscale quantum devices. Bionano will support work on technologies that combine top-down and bottom-up processes to create revolutionary answers to bio-system sensing and the development of complex tissue-models including organic/inorganic hybrids. MiNIC anticipates serving at least 300 external and 600 internal users annually by the end of the funding period. In addition to these technical users, MiNIC will support the broader community with outreach programs to underrepresented populations, filling the STEM pipeline, and increasing emphasis on building a diverse user community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.