#: locale=en ## Action ### URL LinkBehaviour_E45ACD10_EE00_A1F5_41EC_70CA7A965FEE.source = http://tours.sandia.gov/mesa_info.html LinkBehaviour_E45ADD11_EE00_A1F7_41E3_1E5680CAF3B7.source = http://tours.sandia.gov/support.html LinkBehaviour_E45A7D0F_EE00_A1EB_41E8_56846CCB1544.source = http://tours.sandia.gov/tours.html LinkBehaviour_E45BED12_EE00_A1F5_41E0_EE10688FCF63.source = http://tours.sandia.gov/tours.html ## Hotspot ### Tooltip HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_5AABAA0E_402C_A11A_41C4_75B2F4874B51.toolTip = Deep Sea Diver HotspotMapOverlayArea_E45AAD0E_EE00_A1ED_41E9_101105B4D53F.toolTip = 858 Gowning Room HotspotMapOverlayArea_E45A6D10_EE00_A1F5_41B3_37780299F269.toolTip = 858 Lobby HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E1CA2C18_EE00_A7F5_41E0_CC32E4B2A9C1.toolTip = 858 Lobby HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A5D10_EE00_A1F5_41EB_1A9ACE6CB8B6.toolTip = 858 Lobby HotspotMapOverlayArea_E4590D11_EE00_A1F7_41D8_55CC61C33F7F.toolTip = 858 Photolith Lab HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45ADD12_EE00_A1F5_41D6_16B19CD1B33A.toolTip = 858 SiliconFab HotspotMapOverlayArea_E45A5D0F_EE00_A1EB_41B9_A3D36E2FE039.toolTip = 858EF Micro Fab HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4592D0F_EE00_A1EB_41EB_91EA6BCE31A2.toolTip = 858EF MicroFab HotspotMapOverlayArea_E45A9D0E_EE00_A1ED_41E2_8AC163A97464.toolTip = 858N SiliconFab HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4596D0F_EE00_A1EB_41E8_7F061C8BB201.toolTip = 898 Corridor HotspotMapOverlayArea_E4599D0F_EE00_A1EB_41E6_97DEC386564A.toolTip = 898 Corridor HotspotMapOverlayArea_E45BFD12_EE00_A1F5_41D4_21226EEC6AEC.toolTip = 898 Lobby HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45BDD11_EE00_A1F7_41A5_C0676AE7B99C.toolTip = 898 Lobby HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AAD13_EE00_A1FB_41C8_1A7AB4BD5E24.toolTip = Biological Microsensors HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4593D11_EE00_A1F7_41ED_6FDF5A7908E6.toolTip = Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45ABD13_EE00_A1FB_41E4_C18AA6FC7749.toolTip = Electroplating HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AED11_EE00_A1F7_41C9_E7ECE6DBD0BB.toolTip = Energy Conservation Shade Structure HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AAD11_EE00_A1F7_41D9_001123179A90.toolTip = Etching HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A3D10_EE00_A1F5_41C7_17EE1839305F.toolTip = Evolving Bunny Suits \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4591D0F_EE00_A1EB_41D9_0488875F8A17.toolTip = Extensive Experience HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4592D12_EE00_A1F5_41C9_D748FD8E19FC.toolTip = Fan Fact: Seductive Design HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_590C9840_402C_A106_41BB_96236C7FAC54.toolTip = Fun Fact This is a tool box. 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HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_A08ECC2D_B010_2BCA_41E4_6DEA9925BB93.toolTip = Fun Fact: Blue Chords HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_59D82884_4035_E10E_41B2_EFEC65C18648.toolTip = Fun Fact: Classical to Quantum HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AAD10_EE00_A1F5_41CA_36C84376941A.toolTip = Fun Fact: Cutting-edge Microelectronics HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A9D11_EE00_A1F7_41E6_4A1713CB1A41.toolTip = Fun Fact: DOE's Secretary's Achievement Honor Award HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_597FDC68_402B_6106_41C2_8207B9FC18B4.toolTip = Fun Fact: Don’t forget your safety glasses! HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4597D0F_EE00_A1EB_41B1_1EEF9FC4C866.toolTip = Fun Fact: Energy Conservation HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45ACD12_EE00_A1F5_41C5_775B4B033710.toolTip = Fun Fact: First in Green! HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E459BD0F_EE00_A1EB_41C3_4561DC386DEF.toolTip = Fun Fact: MESA Construction HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A3D12_EE00_A1F5_41E5_BFA7211AA8FF.toolTip = Fun Fact: Requirements HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AED0E_EE00_A1ED_41EB_E69398394697.toolTip = Fun Fact: Solar Glitter HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_5DB18F9C_406C_9F3E_41D3_31BDCE61CE50.toolTip = Fun Fact: The Doppler Effect HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45ACD11_EE00_A1F7_41E6_08B21E3B289D.toolTip = Functions of the MESA Facilities HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4594D0F_EE00_A1EB_41D9_68F05F3D41E8.toolTip = Gowning Room HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45BCD11_EE00_A1F7_41ED_146E7AABAF04.toolTip = Gowning Room HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A8D11_EE00_A1F7_41E0_78C4889CDA26.toolTip = Innovation Corridor HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4590D12_EE00_A1F5_41CA_395CFB438373.toolTip = Integrated Materials Research Laboratory (IMRL) \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_5AC44CCD_403C_A11E_41B7_291843C6C652.toolTip = Laser Focus HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_5BD6D65C_4014_E13E_41BF_60AEE350ADFA.toolTip = Locking a Laser’s Frequency HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45ABD0E_EE00_A1ED_41ED_AC364932CF39.toolTip = MEMS HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A5D12_EE00_A1F5_41A9_8B7443547B8E.toolTip = MESA Plaza HotspotMapOverlayArea_E4591D11_EE00_A1F7_41CA_3BA7867CF8AF.toolTip = MESA Plaza HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A7D10_EE00_A1F5_41E1_4853E38164E6.toolTip = MESA Produces! HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45BFD10_EE00_A1F5_41BB_1F161FB12162.toolTip = MESA Water Fountain HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A2D10_EE00_A1F5_419D_2E3F65C4F951.toolTip = MESAfab Capabilities: Summary HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A7D11_EE00_A1F7_41E5_4FD8A0F9D5DC.toolTip = Manufacturing \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AED10_EE00_A1F5_419C_00F23EB79032.toolTip = MicroFab HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E12F497E_EE00_A02D_41B3_36D5B604EAF7.toolTip = Military Liaison \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E10065DE_EE00_A06D_41EA_76E8FC2C756C.toolTip = Military Liaison Over the Years HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_A312906D_B010_5C4A_41C9_94B595F5F5FA.toolTip = No Dust Bunnies Around Here… HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_592F9191_4034_A306_41B7_015788D663A9.toolTip = Not a Dyson… HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4595D0F_EE00_A1EB_41E8_36CB04277625.toolTip = Packaging HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4598D0F_EE00_A1EB_41E5_3A54E02ED91C.toolTip = Patented Clean Room Design \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AFD11_EE00_A1F7_41E3_FBAA77D2C13D.toolTip = Photolithography HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A4D0F_EE00_A1EB_41D8_5B056D8284A1.toolTip = Planarization HotspotMapOverlayArea_939D0D5A_C96C_C167_41C4_6065946F33DD.toolTip = QScout HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A9D10_EE00_A1F5_41DF_0A23A6BE5EBB.toolTip = Senator Pete Domenici Plaque HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A1D12_EE00_A1F5_41C0_163768F9DB42.toolTip = Silicon Photonics Fabrication HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AED12_EE00_A1F5_41EB_DD4F67A97533.toolTip = SiliconFab HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45ACD0E_EE00_A1ED_41E1_14B0DD9AC07F.toolTip = SiliconFab Video HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4595D12_EE00_A1F5_41B3_84AB08615FE1.toolTip = Suiting Up HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_5B433350_4015_6706_41CC_775B92ECCCF2.toolTip = The Ion Trap! HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45A0D12_EE00_A1F5_41C8_086C29A246B2.toolTip = The Laminar Flow Clean Room Design HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E45AFD10_EE00_A1F5_41CF_B45745BBCACA.toolTip = The MESA Vision \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E1E2003D_EE03_A02E_41E9_A5CB0A2901A7.toolTip = VIEWS Corridor and Viz Lab HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_A21E75F5_B010_645A_41E5_00A0940DD2DA.toolTip = Video: Quantumania! HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_5A36D334_402D_E70E_41C6_F9BB2BA247E7.toolTip = Why so Cold? HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4593D12_EE00_A1F5_41ED_483A846167B0.toolTip = Willis Whitfield HotspotPanoramaOverlayArea_E4594D12_EE00_A1F5_41E2_405FCE904017.toolTip = Willis Whitfield Statue ## Media ### 360 Video ### Audio AudioResource_43DB546E_4034_A11A_41B5_2B800FF45DB5.mp3Url = media/audio_1BAB4922_14E1_ED02_4176_6848A2246C73_en.mp3 ### Description album_76D6DD0B_7BE0_F4E5_41D5_FF58217218C0_5.description = 1962: Charles Johnson trained the trainers in a discussion of the use of weapon ancillary equipment with military instructors. album_3CE9CA75_33E8_4533_41BD_96D1594250BE_3.description = 1963 design for a portable clean room album_76D6DD0B_7BE0_F4E5_41D5_FF58217218C0_4.description = 1963: "W. J. Jackel - ACF Albuquerque division manager visited the military liaison training area of Bldg. 892 with president S.P. Schwartz, George Dacey, Vice president of research, and R.W. Henderson, vice president of weapons programs as his tour guides. (Image from Lab News Archives, Vol. 15, No. 15, Pg. 1, July 19, 1963)" album_3B942DB5_3278_DF33_41BA_1BC6A029BE56_0.description = 1964: Temporary employees working in a Sandia clean room in 1964. Bunny suits have changed over time. In the 1960s, the outer layer looked a lot like surgical garb while more recent incarnations look a bit like lightweight space suits. The materials have gotten lighter, stronger, and more resilient. \ photo_3B021E6A_3278_5D51_41C4_49BB35CA3DAE.description = 1965: Ed Powers of NASA joins Vernon Arnold to inspect a sterilized interplanetary lander in a Sandia clean room in 1965. photo_26686FC8_2937_4D3C_41AE_14C09129039C.description = 1965: first surgery within the improved clean room design. Bataan Memorial Methodist Hospital in Albuquerque, which later became Lovelace Medical Center, was the first hospital to use laminar-flow cleanrooms in its operating rooms to reduce infections. \ album_3B942DB5_3278_DF33_41BA_1BC6A029BE56_1.description = 1981: 1980s clean room style. album_3B942DB5_3278_DF33_41BA_1BC6A029BE56_2.description = 1986: Elaine Buck holding a four-inch wafer in a Sandia clean room in 1986. Attire includes a nurse's cap, mask, safety glasses, acid-resistant jumpsuit, and surgeon's gloves. album_3B942DB5_3278_DF33_41BA_1BC6A029BE56_3.description = 1989: Dressed to process semiconductor wafers in the Microelectronics Development Laboratory in 1989. album_3B942DB5_3278_DF33_41BA_1BC6A029BE56_4.description = 1990s: In the full clean room gear of the 1990s. album_3CE9CA75_33E8_4533_41BD_96D1594250BE_2.description = Advertisement for Whitfield presentation in the Institute of Radio Engineers program. \ photo_27F8B5B1_2936_BD6C_41C0_16CA7AA6A3A4.description = Agnew-Higgins manufactured the first commercial prototype clean room bench based on the laminar flow design. By the mid-1970s, more than 50 U.S. companies were manufacturing laminar flow equipment. By 1989, this was a billion- dollar-a-year industry. \ album_76D6DD0B_7BE0_F4E5_41D5_FF58217218C0_3.description = Dick Brodie was a legendary instructor. In 1992, he was honored for teaching more than 1,000 students since 1985. The Weapon Training Center in Building 892 was dedicated to his memory in 1994 and the entrance to the current Weapon Display Area in Building 898 is similarly dedicated to him. album_3CE9CA75_33E8_4533_41BD_96D1594250BE_1.description = First page of patent #3,158,457 album_76D6DD0B_7BE0_F4E5_41D5_FF58217218C0_1.description = In 1948, Military Liaison began moving into Building 804, Sandia's first permanent building. It was the first home for Military Liaison and its design reflects the organization's need for a high bay to handle the large weapon shapes of the early Cold War. The building was designed by Albuquerque architect Max Flatow and is historic. photo_266FA672_2937_7FEC_41B5_DB0A9E295137.description = In 1967, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston equipped two patient rooms as clean rooms. The rooms provided clean environments for leukemia patients vulnerable to infection while undergoing treatment. In 1969, Dr. Gerald Bodey visited Albuquerque to test a Sandia-designed vacuum probe sample to assay microbial contamination while Jack Sivinski and Willis Whitfield consulted. album_76D6DD0B_7BE0_F4E5_41D5_FF58217218C0_2.description = In December 1962, President Kennedy visited Sandia/New Mexico. Discussions of weapon capabilities took place in the Training Area of Sandia Laboratory’s Military Liaison organization in Building 892. Left to right: Sandia Corporation President Monk Schwartz, Senator Clinton P. Anderson (D-NM); Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Glenn Seaborg, and President Kennedy. photo_266FC991_2937_552C_41C2_3BE68DE1C672.description = In recognition of his contributions to clean room design, Willis Whitfield received the American Society of Mechanical Engineer's prestigious Holley Medal in 1969. The award is given to "an individual who by some great and unique act(s) of an engineering nature has accomplished a great and timely public benefit." album_76D6DD0B_7BE0_F4E5_41D5_FF58217218C0_0.description = Sandia's military liaison writer Ellen Edge, left, documents the step-by-step details of a new procedure performed by Air Force weapons specialists assembling a B61. photo_266FDAE9_2937_54FC_41A9_0B81246701C6.description = Willis Whitfield and his likeness. album_3CE9CA75_33E8_4533_41BD_96D1594250BE_0.description = Willis Whitfield's lab notebook page with the design photo_2766A693_292F_5F2C_41A9_2C6B215352A1.description = Willis in the clean room. \ \ ### Floorplan ### Image imlevel_9F081EE0_C967_C323_41CD_0B5E89F695C7.url = media/map_925C0F6A_C96B_C127_41D7_2AC13E6AFF8C_en_0.png imlevel_9F080EE0_C967_C323_41D7_EA5895E31143.url = media/map_925C0F6A_C96B_C127_41D7_2AC13E6AFF8C_en_1.png imlevel_9F082EE0_C967_C323_41D9_711D8C1E3879.url = 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MESA's MicroFab for compound semiconductor material processing and silicon wafer post-processing contains 14,900 square feet of Class 10 and Class 100 clean room bays. The 180 tools in the MicroFab are maintained and supported by in-house maintenance and technical staff. This allows for production of highly customized, low-volume production and of prototyping for new devices.
The state-of-the-art microfabrication capability here includes compound semiconductor epitaxial growth, compound semiconductor discretes, integrated circuits and MEMs, silicon MEMs, mixed-technology integration and processing, 3D integration, packaging, materials characterization, and reverse engineering and failure analysis.
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MESA's advanced microfabrication and microsystems packaging capabilities support biological microsensor research and development to address national security applications ranging from environmental monitoring to soldier performance. Building on the base of MESA's microfabrication, the resulting technology was an R&D 100 winner.
Photo: Microneedles coupled to electrochemical microsensors provide real-time monitoring for infection, critical injury, and human performance.
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Planarization is polishing to thin substrates and provide a final polish on filled molds. Polishing is done on polishing wheels that range from hard to soft to handle bulk removal of thicknesses right down to a fine polish.
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Sandia developed Microsystems Enabled Photovoltaics (MEPV), using microdesign and microfabrication techniques to produce solar cells as small as 3-20 microns thick and 100-1000 microns wide. Small and light, they are referred to as Solar Glitter.
Why would you need such tiny photovoltaic cells? Benefits include reducing the amount of semiconductors needed in the system while still achieving high efficiencies. Cheaper and lighter!
The microsystems-enabled photovoltaic cell designs won an R&D 100 award in 2012.
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A quantum computer (QC) is no ordinary desktop computer. The computer you’re likely using right now is great for ordinary, day to day tasks, but a QC allows certain types of problems, like simulating rare materials for example, to be performed on a faster and larger scale. QCs work by harnessing the quantum properties of an atom or other (very small) systems to perform calculations in ways a normal computer couldn’t.
At Sandia, the Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed (QSCOUT) team has built a small QC based on trapped ions to help determine how to build a larger one – which is why QSCOUT is available to outside research teams through a competitive proposal process. Teams use their regular computers to write a circuit and practice with that circuit on an emulator before finally running it on the QSCOUT machine. More often than not, the answer is always different than the expected outcome, and this constant collaboration allows for the community to play a role in the continual development in quantum computing.
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An important part of quantum computing (QC) is making sure all the lasers are at the correct frequency. Changes in temperature and pressure can cause a laser’s frequency to drift if it is not “locked” to a stable source. To do this, QSCOUT uses a furnace-looking contraption called the Herzan, a stable temperature and pressure enclosure. Inside the Herzan there are two lasers: an ultra-stable laser cavity, and a rubidium source. A laser is sent through a rubidium cloud, and based on what light is absorbed, the frequency of the laser is locked.
The team also uses a transfer cavity to stabilize the wavelength frequencies to another laser. This stable light goes to three different labs across Sandia, and provides a stable source for several experiments.
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Don’t worry, nobody will have to wear a helmet this small to go scuba diving. This is actually a “back-up” chamber, kept around simply because ultra-high vacuums are not easy to obtain if the main one breaks.
QSCOUT is always careful about what materials are inside the vacuum chamber, as certain things will continue to release particles even after the experiment has been finished and can cause the ion to react with unexpected behaviors. To ensure the chamber has as little particles as possible, the chamber is baked for three to five days at 200°C, sucking out most of the water and extra air that might be inside. Once the chamber cools down, it becomes a pristine environment for quantum computing to begin!
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Inside QSCOUT, lasers do a variety of things inside the vacuum chambers. For quantum computing with ions, the main goal is to manipulate the internal electronic state of the ion (in this case, the “spin” of the outermost electron). How do you do that? With lasers of course!
Through a combination of crystals, lenses and mirrors, lasers of the correct frequency, intensity and phase are directed into the chamber through windows. Since atoms have many internal states, QSCOUT needs multiple laser frequencies to make sure ions are maintained correctly.
To prepare an ion for quantum computing, it must be cooled by a laser to slow it down and remove energy. Yes – you heard that right. Cooled! Next, QSCOUT uses several lasers that work together to place the ion in the ground state for experiments to begin. For performing quantum circuits, the team uses a particular high-powered pulsed laser, and another laser reads out the final state as well.
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No, this is not the type of vacuum you use to clean your floors. Inside this vacuum, groups research trapped ions so they can study atoms that have been stripped of an electron. Ions are a good choice for quantum computing as they are positively charged and can be easily controlled by electric fields. Lasers manipulate the ions, which enter the vacuum chamber through porthole-like glass windows. To do this, QSCOUT uses 171Yb+, a rare earth metal found at the bottom of the periodic table.
Here is the outside of the chamber, some of the optical mounts that direct the light inside, and the feedthroughs for the 100 electrical connections required to precisely position the ion.
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QSCOUT is building a cryogenic system to improve ion performance. Dropping to extremely low temperatures, the vacuum surrounding the ion improves through a process known as “cryopumping”. The cryostat has a different form factor than typical vacuum chambers found in QSCOUT. The trap is placed on a special package, to which a small lid is attached. This lid protects the ion and allows for the vacuum around the ion to be even better than the area inside the cryostat, further improving ion performance.
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QSCOUT suspends the ion trap upside down in its chamber since it is less likely to gather dust particles during installation, and because the electromagnetic force is much stronger than gravity!
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See this twin blue chords hanging from the rack above? These are the fibers QSCOUT uses to help deliver the lasers into the vacuum chamber through the windows!
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The QSCOUT Team received an R&D 100 Award back in 2021 for their outstanding work and contributions to the field of quantum computing. Their hard work has persisted throughout the years, earning the team another five-year funding grant to continue their mission.
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These glasses must be worn at all times when the lasers are exposed. Most of the time, the lasers are enclosed in boxes and your eyes are safe. But when someone needs to work on a laser and open one of the boxes, goggle up!
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This box sitting high above the chambers is actually the amplifier system that controls the information written onto the laser beams, and ultimately the ions. Comprised of 32 SMA cables, these wires send radio frequency (RF) signals to acousto-optic modulators, which are special crystals laser light is sent through. RF signals can then turn the laser light on and off, as well as adjust the frequency and phase as needed. This amplifier is a key junction in the interface between the classical and quantum world for our experiment – a bridge between the ordinary and extraordinary.
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This little square chip is the Microfabricated Surface Trap. Made at the Microsystems Engineering, Science and Applications (MESA) complex, these chips are the heart and soul of QSCOUT’s mission.
See that little bowtie structure in the center? In testing, an ion will hover about 70 microns (about a hair’s width) above the center bar to be manipulated and researched. Beneath the chip are dozens of microfabricated wires to route electrical signals from the pins on the back of the package to an electrode on the surface of the trap. These electrodes create the voltages that will precisely position the charged atom for lasers to directly shine on it.
In the future, ions will be moved to different regions of the trap, allowing the team to create a new functionality in the system. Until then, ions are a quantum physicist’s best friend!
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When you think of the Doppler Effect, imagine a car speeding down the road as you stand still on a sidewalk. Can you hear the sound that car makes (“nyoooom”)? These are sound waves moving at different frequencies to produce different noises.
At QSCOUT, the same concept is applied to light waves in order to cool the ions. When the cooling light is turned on, ions absorb a photon that is slightly lower in energy than the actual resonance, and they become excited for eight nanoseconds before emitting a slightly higher energy photon and returning to the ground state. This process is repeated multiple times, and as the ion loses energy and cools, it prepares to hold delicate quantum information.
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A unique research and manufacturing environment, the SiliconFab is flexible—it can quickly prototype new designs or do full flow production lots once designs are completed. Three shifts a day ensure that the equipment is maintained, supported, and operated 24 hours/day, 5 days/week.


The SiliconFab has processing expertise to produce integrated circuits with either complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).


Photo: Night shift in MESA.


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Aerial view of the MESA buildings, with their functions identified.
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All personnel and visitors entering wafer fabrication facilities (the SiliconFab and MicroFab clean rooms) within Building 858 wear clean room garments. All visitors are escorted.


Personnel are assigned white or blue jumpsuits depending on their typical work functions. White Gortex® is assigned to operations; blue polyester is assigned to maintenance. Garment storage locations are assigned.


Specifications are detailed for everything from gloves, to wipes, to paper and lab notebooks that can be used in the clean rooms. And, not surprisingly, there is no food, drink, chewing gum, tobacco, cosmetics, or perfume allowed in the clean rooms. Nor any other items not clean room approved. All tools and equipment brought into the clean rooms are wiped down prior to entry.


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As the last century ended, this laboratory chose a path to a greater future. We chose to establish a unique, world-class facility that would enable the nation’s security to have an anchor in unquestioned technological leadership—leadership in the synthesis of the unlimited potential of integrated microsystems, the awesome power of modeling and simulation through advanced supercomputing, and an engineering design environment where the nation’s finest will be empowered and challenged and the best solutions for national security will be developed and realized.


Thomas O. Hunter, President, Sandia National Laboratories, MESA Weapon Integration Facility (Building 898) dedication, August 23, 2007


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At Sandia you can work on almost anything. After designing the modern clean room, Willis Whitfield worked with a team testing the use of gamma rays to treat municipal sewage, exploring options for its reuse, as a fertilizer, for example.


Image: Willis Whitfield and Jack Sivinski checking out a test crop fertilized with thermoradiated sludge.
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Atomic clocks go everywhere! Sandia pushed the miniaturization of atomic clocks by reducing their size and power requirements, allowing creation of the now commercially available Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC).


In 2011, a joint effect between Symmetricom Inc., MIT's Draper Lab, and researchers in MESA resulted in the CSAC. CSAC is 100 times smaller than any commercial predecessor and uses 100 times less power (100 milliwatts). It determines the passage of time by counting the frequency of electromagnetic waves emitted by cesium atoms struck by a tiny laser. The project was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with the goal of producing a dual-use (military and commercial) clock.


Sandia contributed the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), Draper Lab developed the cesium container, and Symmetricom designed the electronic circuits and assembled the clock.


Photo: CSAC lead investigator Darwin Serkland in his lab at MESA.


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Between July 2015 and July 2016, MESA recycled around 2100 pounds of nitrile gloves.


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Building 898's polished stone and steel and glass exterior includes curvilinear walled ribbons of windows leading to the northeast entrance, and extended wings with sun-protecting louvered windows.


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Clean rooms environments are kept clean both by limiting the volume of particles introduced to the space and by constantly flowing air through the room to remove particles. Workers wear protective garments to reduce the number of contaminants they introduce to the room.


The gowning room supplies appropriate clean room gear and a place to put it on. The process for gowning is detailed and carefully practiced to avoid contaminating the clean areas. Turn around and notice the flooring behind you, for example. Blue flooring is for street shoes. White is for after booties and gloves are on and workers are in transition to the inner area.


Gowning is required prior to entering the SiliconFab and the MicroFab; each has its own gowning area.


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Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) refers both to a specific set of processes for creating integrated circuits and a type of circuit design. The circuits are known for their low power consumption and are broadly used in integrated circuit design. Sandia has advanced and specialized its CMOS processes based on its early experience with radiation-hardened components.


CMOS7 is a radiation-hardened, 3.3 volt, 0.35-micrometer, SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) CMOS process for custom, high reliability digital, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. Sandia designs the circuits for the specific application for which they are needed.


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Cutting-edge microelectronics are nothing new to Sandia. The Lab has been designing and producing custom radiation-hardened microelectronics for the nuclear stockpile since 1975.


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Electroplating applies a thin metal coating or layer to a metal (or other conducting) surface. The object to be coated is placed into a bath containing positively charged metal ions. The object is given a negative charge and the metal ions attach themselves to it.


In MESA, the objects are parts of microsystems—wafers as well as 3D parts. There are a wide variety of metals available to meet specific design needs and MESA fabrication offers high uniformity of the electroplating.



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Here in the lobby of Building 858, there is a display devoted to the invention of the improved clean room. A copy of Whitfield's lab notebook, open to the page with the clean room design, is on the shelf.


In 1962, the Atomic Energy Commission filed for a patent on the Ultra-Clean Room. Patent #3,158,457 was issued on November 24, 1962 in Willis Whitfield's name.


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In 1959, nuclear weapons component manufacturing was stymied by dirt. Or at least small particles of dust. Sandia’s Willis Whitfield was tasked with solving the problem of contaminants in manufacturing of close tolerance parts. His idea? Constantly clean the manufacturing space by sweeping filtered air through it at a low rate.


His improved clean room design reduced the number of particles greater than 0.5 microns from 100,000 per cubic foot to 100. This got component manufacturing going again, added to food safety, improved the cleanliness of surgical environments, and allowed for the development of the entire computer industry as we know it.


Sandia honored the improved clean room and its inventor with a sculpture of Willis. Sculptor (and former Sandian) Neal McEwen formed a casual, approachable figure in bronze, with the goal of honoring all engineers through the representation of Willis. The statue was unveiled at the 2007 dedication of the MESA facilities.


In addition to being honored within Sandia, Willis is recognized internationally for his role in the improved clean room design. In 2014, he was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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In 2008, the MESA Microfabrication Facility was awarded LEED certification. It was the first microelectronics facility in the world certified by the US Green Building Council.


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In 2008, the MESA integrated project team received the Secretary's Achievement Honor Award from DOE. The highest internal non-monetary recognition the DOE offers its employees and contractors, the award was given "In recognition for demonstrating outstanding project management expertise and successfully completing the SNL MESA microelectronics facilities (MicroFab and MicroLab) and construction of the Weapons Integration Facility (WIF) ahead of schedule and under budget." MESA was completed three years ahead of schedule and $40 million under budget.


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In 2011, Building 898 (Weapon Integration Facility) was rededicated as the Pete V. Domenici National Security Innovation Center to acknowledge Senator Domenici's tireless support of the national laboratories in New Mexico. Pushing for advanced research in nuclear energy, advanced computing, microsystems, and nanotechnology, Domenici consistently challenged the Labs to find more and better ways to serve the nation, not just in national security but also in advancing U.S. industry and technology.


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In the early 1970s, weapon designers at Sandia recognized the potential for large-scale integrated circuits to combine increased complexity with higher reliability, and all in a smaller, lighter package. But, nuclear weapons design required that the components also be radiation-hardened and produced in relatively small lots. This was difficult to come by in commercial production, so the Lab pursued in-house capabilities and was delivering custom, radiation-hardened microelectronics by 1975. Ultimately, Sandia established the Center for Radiation-Hardened Microelectronics and defined a need for additional facilities.


Building 858 was originally built in 1988 to house Sandia’s burgeoning manufacturing efforts in radiation-hardened microelectronics. Identified as the Microelectronics Development Laboratory (MDL), it expanded significantly when the MESA project was initiated. 858EF (the MicroFab) and 858EL (MicroLab) were added in 2007 and the building now houses wafer manufacturing, compound semiconductor fabrication, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) production, and electronic circuit manufacturing.


Having both silicon manufacturing and microsystems manufacturing in the same facility allows Sandia to press advances in both manufacturing and design. Ultimately, the microsystems created here extend the processing capabilities of integrated circuits—adding sensing, actuation, and communication functions, for example—within a single package.


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Lithography transfers the desired pattern from the mask to the substrate by laying down a photoresist. The pattern is then either engraved into or built up on the substrate. Etching takes off a layer of the substrate in the areas not covered by the photoresist. Items pass through the lithography process multiple times, etching away and building up different areas until the final design is achieved.


Etching is done with chemicals. Wet (liquid) etching involves placing the wafer in a bath. MESA also has the ability to do deep reactive silicon ion etching, which uses a plasma containing some ions to eat away at the wafer alternating with a passivation step that deposits a chemically inert layer that stops the plasma etch. This allows for the creation of deep etches in the substrate.


Photo: Wet etching.


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MESA fabrication encompasses the SiliconFab and the MicroFab. These are distinct facilities within the building and you will visit each of them.


Combined, they offer depth and breadth of expertise in multiple micro-fabrication processes. You will learn more about the processes as you proceed through the tour. But, as an introduction, just note that they include


• Photolithography
• Reactive Ion Etch
• Wet Etch/Clean
• Oxidation and Diffusion
• Thin Films
• CMP (Planarization)
• Ion Implantation
• Metrology
• Deep Reactive Silicon Ion Etch
• Wafer Bonding and Thinning
• Electroplating
• Packaging
• Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)
• Yield Learning
• Statistical Process Control


The combination of these capabilities allows Sandia to produce new designs and prototypes quickly. The fabrication facilities also can produce high-quality, low-volume production lots for arenas like nuclear weapons and satellites, which do not have commercial-scale production needs.


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MESA is NNSA's primary supplier of custom radiation-hardened integrated circuits for the nuclear weapons life extension programs.


Photo: Custom radiation-hardened mixed signal Application-Specific Integrated Circuits.


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MESA produces! In October 2014, MESA’s Silicon Fab started its largest production run so far. It is producing base wafers for three weapon systems. Ten different Application-Specific Integrated Circuits go into these systems, seven of them with base wafers made by the Silicon Fab, so production will run 24 hours a day, five days a week through 2018.
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MESA sits in the southeast section of Tech Area I. Since 2000, this area has been developed with an open, campus-like feel. The goal? Emphasize the integrated nature of the mission elements from nuclear weapons design to microsystems manufacturing


Although it includes facilities like Joint Computational Engineering Laboratory (JCEL), the majority of the buildings along the Innovation Corridor are elements of MESA, which combines a few older facilities with newer, green building construction.


The new facilities brought art and a deliberately attractive design into Sandia's landscape.


Photo: The entire vision of Sandia's Innovation Corridor, sweeping from JCEL up through Technology Park and around to Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT).
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Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices are created with processing tools and infrastructure very similar to that used to fabricate conventional integrated circuits. Sandia embarked on an unusual collaboration between its semiconductor fabrication expertise and mechanical mechanism designers in the early 1990s. The goal was to miniaturize mechanical switches, initially for inertial sensors and other micro-scale mechanisms.


This work has grown rapidly since, with many Sandia-introduced improvements, including chemical mechanical polishing and a fabrication process to create machine parts (gears, hubs, hinges, etc.) on the micro scale. Integrated MEMS are now created in the SiliconFab.


Photo: A MEMS device viewed through a scanning electron microscope—making the tiny gears visible.


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Military Liaison is one of the oldest functions at Sandia. Part of the need Sandia's precursor Z Division was established to meet was to work closely with the military. This assignment was formally established as Military Liaison in 1947 and continues to this day. Military Liaison is the interface between the NNSA's nuclear weapons design and manufacturing functions and the military's handling of stockpiled nuclear weapons.


Military Liaison includes field engineering, training, and publications, ensuring the military services have the knowledge and training to maintain and, if necessary, use nuclear weapons.


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Photolithography is a fundamental process in integrated circuit production and is used in both the MicroFab and the SiliconFab.


What is photolithography? Perhaps the Greeks can help us out here, since we're using their words. Phos or photo- in the combining form (light) + lithos (stone) + graphe (to write) = writing on stone with light. In MESA the writing is done with a photoresist (a light sensitive polymer) on a semiconductor substrate (usually silicon).


The pattern of geometric shapes that will build up into conductors, insulators, and various doped regions are transferred from a photomask to a light-sensitive chemical on the substrate.


MESA maintains the ability to create custom-designed molds or masks for new integrated circuit designs, supporting innovative components for a variety of technologies, including nuclear weapons.


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State-of-the-art videoconferencing and stunning projection capabilities make the VIEWS Corridor a prime viewing and sharing spot for scientific computing displays. Output from the visualization tools used in Sandia's high performance computing arena can be projected in 3D. The area is a magnet for VIP visits and tours.


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The IMRL was built in 1994 to house advanced research and development functions, including laboratory studies in chemistry, physics, and alternative energy technologies. Experimental work is augmented by advanced computer modeling and simulation techniques. It is tied to the rest of the MESA complex by its emphasis on the development of new and super materials for national security needs, including compound semiconductors, nanosciences, and optical sciences.


Photo: Jackie Murton in an IMRL lab.


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The MESA Weapons Integration Facility (Building 898) received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Award from the U.S. Green Building Council for new construction when it was completed in 2008.


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The MESA water fountain design is an abstraction of silicon wafer production.


As water moves through the fountain, it symbolically breaks the stones of a mountain into the fine silica that is used in the wafers of microelectronics manufacturing—the water flows over natural stone, then down over more modern materials such as cut stone and concrete before cascading onto a wafer.


Much less symbolically, the actual water in the fountain is recycled spent rinse water from the fabrication processes in Building 858. The fountain is powered by an array of photovoltaic cells placed on top of the shade structure to the south.
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The Silicon Fab houses the development, application and production of radiation hardened CMOS integrated circuit technologies that become digital, analog, mixed-mode, and nonvolatile memory circuits for the nuclear stockpile. In addition, the silicon wafer fab is the world’s premier R&D source of surface micromachining technology.


The SiliconFab includes 12,500 square feet of Class 1 clean room space and houses 6" silicon wafer processing (which will become 8" wafer processing by 2018). Over 150 equipment sets are maintained within the Fab, which offers unique prototyping capabilities for new designs with flexible process development. The SiliconFab can produce full production lots with quick turnaround time.


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The packed elements on integrated circuit chips—a chip might incorporate over a billion transistors, for example—require innovative solutions to communicate data amongst themselves and with other integrated circuits. One potential solution for the communication bottleneck is silicon photonics—routing light within silicon nanowire waveguides to communicate at very lower power.


Sandia's silicon photonic devices are fabricated in the SiliconFab. The lab has developed a Silicon Photonics Design Manual to support designers creating prototype photonic devices. Silicon photonics designers have demonstrated optical switching blocks for networks, optical interconnects, and advanced detectors for RF and quantum applications, along with other potential future applications.


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The photovoltaic cells on top of the shade structure produce up to 3.15 kW of peak power, keeping the pumps on the water fountain running and powering eight LED fixtures that illuminate the open area.


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We're not talking about bubble wrap! Packaging and assembly involves interconnecting integrated circuits and/or other components to a plastic or ceramic substrate, then integrating that package into a system. The experts in MESA have decades of experience with the microsystems packaging process, allowing for both standard packaging for established processes and the ability to prototype and provide quick turnaround for plastic and ceramic packaging.


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MESA was Sandia’s largest construction project since 1949. And, it came in three years ahead of schedule and $40 million under budget.


Photo: Aerial of Building 898 under construction.
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858 Lobby


Originally built in the late 1980s to house the Manufacturing Development Laboratory and its offices, Building 858 expanded significantly when 858EF (the MicroFab) and 858EL (MicroLab) were added as part of the MESA construction. The building houses wafer manufacturing, compound semiconductor fabrication, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) production, and electronic circuit manufacturing.
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858 Photolith Lab


Sandia maintains a clean room outside of the MicroFab area for its photolithography processes. This allows the MESA workers to develop and maintain customized processes without disruption to the manufacturing effort.


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858 SiliconFab


Building 898 is a three-story, partially pre-fabricated, facility housing offices and light laboratories. Designed as an integrated facility promoting interaction among groups via workspace blocks, the building sports a postmodern, high-tech industrial design. Its polished stone and steel and glass exterior includes curvilinear walled ribbons of windows leading to the northeast entrance, and extended wings with sun-protecting louvered windows. The soaring lobby and high ceilings create an open and empowering environment for the design work housed here.
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898 Corridor


State-of-the-art videoconferencing and stunning projection capabilities make the VIEWS Corridor a prime viewing and sharing spot for scientific computing displays. Output from the visualization tools used in Sandia's high performance computing arena can be projected in 3D. The area is a magnet for VIP visits and tours.


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898 Lobby


Building 898 is a three-story, partially pre-fabricated, facility housing offices and light laboratories. Designed as an integrated facility promoting interaction among groups via workspace blocks, the building sports a postmodern, high-tech industrial design. The soaring lobby and high ceilings create an open and empowering environment for the design work housed here.
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Gowning Room


Clean rooms environments are kept clean both by limiting the volume of particles introduced to the space and by constantly moving the air to remove particles. Workers wear protective garments to reduce the number of contaminants they introduce to the room. This changing station allows staff to put on appropriate layers prior to entering a clean room; additional changing rooms allow for full changes of clothing.
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MicroFab


The MESA Microsystems Fabrication facility is one of the most complex buildings at Sandia. It is the first in the world to combine silicon processing with fabrication of compound semiconductors under one roof. This is the heart of microsystem manufacturing, done primarily in cleanrooms.


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Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA)


Welcome to MESA, home of Sandia’s advanced nuclear weapons research, design and development functions, as well as integrated materials research, and the production facilities for microsystem technologies.


Focused primarily on the nuclear weapons mission, the facilities that make up MESA ultimately connect with all of Sandia's mission areas via microsystems research and applications.


After eight years of construction, MESA was completed in 2007 at a cost of $518 million. It was Sandia's largest construction project since the Labs' first permanent buildings were built in the 1940s.


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