Glove Box Systems for Material and Device Processing and Testing

The University of Manchester wishes to purchase controlled environment chambers, specifically gloveboxes, for handling air and moisture-sensitive materials in a controlled/inert environment and for fabricating and characterizing optoelectronic devices. The facility will promote innovation in sustainable electronics and showcase emerging manufacturing methods for the semiconductor industry. The facility will be housed within the Henry Royce Institute hub on the Manchester campus and provide support to academic partners and small to medium businesses in Greater Manchester and across the UK. The project aligns with the Royce Roadmap on Materials for Energy Transition and will introduce new technical capabilities to academic and industry partners in sustainable semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing, optoelectronics, and advanced sensor technologies.

The project aims to enable additional capability for developing sustainable optoelectronics and sensor technologies. The facility will enable material synthesis, device fabrication and comprehensive characterisation under chemically inert atmosphere conditions. Such stringent conditions are critical for removing/minimising the deleterious effect of oxidation and/or other unwanted chemical reactions, which typically compromise early-stage materials and device triage.