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The NanoGrowth™ R-Tube Carbon Nanotube growth tool

NanoGrowth R-Tube is Surrey NanoSystems' entry-level tool for Carbon Nanotube research and development.  As standard, it comes with both CVD (chemical vapour deposition) and PECVD (plasma-enhanced CVD) processing capability.  These two techniques provide great versatility for users, allowing material growth at 'standard' temperatures in and around the 500-1000 degrees C range, as well as growth at lower temperatures. 

The tool is based on a compact benchtop furnace, and can be used to grow unaligned Carbon Nanotubes on small substrates (up to approximately 15 x 15 mm), at temperatures up to approximately 1000 degrees C. (Download datasheet.)

The system may be expanded with ICP (inductively coupled plasma) - a further plasma process providing another degree of flexibility over deposition, and sublimation vapour catalyst delivery - which supports the introduction of vapour phase catalysts such as ferrocene.

NanoGrowth R-Tube is controlled by a man-machine interface that allows users with limited knowledge of plasma based processing or CVD equipment to use the tool easily and effectively.  This attribute stems from NanoSoft™, a touch-screen SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) software interface. NanoSoft uses 'MIMIC' and other highly graphical displays of the tool to provide fine control over all stages of processing. Users are typically provided with ready-to-use processing programs, which provide recipe templates that may be adapted easily by users for their own applications. Users also have full manual control of the tool, and can create their own custom processes using a menu-driven user interface to control gas flow rates, voltage and current levels, RF power, temperatures, etc. Sophisticated datalogging, trending and batch tracking facilities help users to develop and document their own processes, to optimise recipes for commercial production. This software has been field proven on scientific thin-film tools for over six years, and is common to the complete NanoGrowth range.

Thanks to this common control system, users are able to take their know-how, and migrate easily from this entry-level Carbon Nanotube growth furnace, to either of Surrey NanoSystems' high-end professional tools.