Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research

AMBER has driven considerable investment in infrastructure, particularly in the areas of advanced microscopy, thin film deposition and additive manufacturing. These are located at Trinity and are maintained and further developed by a team of specialized technical staff. These critical capabilities associated with the fabrication and characterization of advanced materials ensure that Ireland remains at the forefront of world-class research. The SFI funded NION UltraSTEM 200, one of the top 10 microscopes in the world was launched in 2016 and allows imaging of materials at a sub atomic scale. As a result of a successful SFI infrastructure award of €6.5M in 2015, we have invested in a state of the art physical vapor deposition tool capable of depositing complex thin-film stacks of metallic and dielectric materials with sub nanometre thickness control and in 3D printing and Additive Manufacturing capability which has driven a new research direction which will lead to significant engagement with industry. AML The Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (AML) is part of the CRANN Institute and is a custom designed, 6,000 square foot facility, located in the Trinity Technology and Enterprise Campus. The AML contains a suite of instruments that covers the entire resolution range from transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopies with spatial resolution up to the atomic scale, to scanning electron and ion beam microscopes for surface imaging and analysis. Many of these microscopy techniques not only support analysis but also can be used for fabrication purposes in the nanoscale range. All of these techniques are managed by a dedicated team of highly trained staff with many years of academic and industrial experience, who can advise on the most appropriate method. The equipment suite includes our new (Apr 2016) atomic resolution Nion UltraSTEM200 microscope, which was funded by Science Foundation Ireland. This is the most powerful microscope in Ireland. The AML has an open-access policy and is available for variable rates to academic and industrial users, both nationally and internationally. AR-Lab AMBER’s Additive Research Laboratory (AR-Lab) was launched in March 2018. Here research will be focussed on the fundamental material science challenges associated with 3D printing. We have invested in a purpose built suite of 3D printing technology which spans the full spectrum of materials from ceramics and metals to polymers and biomaterials. This investment will play a leading role in the emerging 3D printing national research ecosystem. It will enable AMBER to build on our foundation of research excellence in materials science to become leaders in this emerging technology which is critical to a variety of sectors within Ireland including medical devices, manufacturing technologies and electronic devices. The AR-Lab has been enabled by a €3.3M award from Science Foundation Ireland as part of their Research Infrastructure program and an additional €1M investment from the European Research Council through our world leading investigators. Cleanroom The cleanroom located within the CRANN Institute is equipped to produce device structures on wafers up to 150mm in diameter. The specification is from class 100 in the lithography area to class 10000 in the metrology and deposition areas. The following tools are available in the cleanroom: • OAI UV lithography mask aligner and nanoimprint module for the creation of 1 to 2 micron feature size on various resists and polymers. • A Heidelberg laser mask writer, which has 0.6 micron resolution. This tool can also be used to direct write a pattern to a substrate. • The Temescal and Edwards Auto 500 ebeam and thermal evaporators used for multi-stack thin film depositions of metal and dielectric materials. • Magnetic alloy, oxide, and multi-layer stacks are deposited in a multi-chamber sputter tool, which also incorporates a chamber for e-beam evaporation. • Wet etching is carried out in a dedicated wet station equipped with buffered hydrofluoric acid and hot orthophosphoric acid baths. This provides a capability for wet etching Silicon dioxide and Silicon Nitride. A Oxford Instruments Plasmalab 100 Inductively Coupled Plasma etch system. This tool has the capability of etching Silicon, Silicon Dioxide, Silicon Nitride and carbon based materials. • A nanospec is available to measure film thickness, while a Dektak profilometer can be used to measure step height. Photonics The Photonics lab within the CRANN Institute houses a state of the art, highly versatile, laser system, the most advanced in Ireland. It combines unique femtosecond laser systems with different repetition rates and tunability from UV to mid-IR, a Raman Spectroscope, Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope and a Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscope. The Ultrafast femtosecond Laser System provides an understanding of fast photodynamic processes in physics, chemistry and biology. It support s many techniques, such as Z-scan, Pump-probe and femtosecond laser ablation & deposition. Bioengineering AMBER brings together expertise in Bioengineering from both the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering and RCSI. Established in 2002, the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering (TCBE) brings together scientists, engineers and clinicians from a number of Dublin universities (TCD, RCSI, DCU and UCD) and teaching hospitals to conduct cutting-edge research, translatable to clinical applications. Investigators from the Centre work across five different research themes - regenerative medicine, biomaterials, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neural engineering. The centre currently has 20 Principal investigators working with 16 postdoctoral researchers, 50 PhD and 29 MSc students. Some of our core facilities include specialist labs for cell and tissue culture, mechanical testing, biomaterials development, biochemical assays, micro computed topography (microCT), microscopy and imaging, impact biomechanics, medical device design and surgical facilities. Expertise within the centre includes (1) the development of a variety of natural and synthetic biomaterials, (2) incorporation of therapeutic agents such as drugs and genes into these materials, (3) computational modelling of cells, tissues and biomaterials, (4) neural signal processing, (5) designing devices for clinical applications and (6) conducting pre-clinical testing. The Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG) at RCSI utilises cell and biomaterials-based technologies to restore the structural and functional properties of damaged or degenerated tissues, including collagen-based scaffolds designed for specific clinical applications in bone, osteochondral, corneal, vascular, heart valve, and lung & airway repair. These scaffolds also form the foundation for targeted bio-therapeutic delivery platforms through the incorporation of drugs, proteins, peptides, genes and microRNA, or novel non-viral delivery vectors such as nano-hydroxyapatite, chitosan and PEI. These vectors can also be used independent of scaffolds to enhance gene or microRNA delivery to cells. Facilities and equipment at TERG include those standard for tissue culture (including custom bioreactors and a hypoxia chamber), scaffold fabrication and sterilization (freeze-dryers and vacuum oven), tissue processing and histological staining (including a microtome and cryostat), mechanical testing (rheometer and a Zwick Z05), and molecular biology analysis (including real time RT-PCR, FACS and a plate reader). Equipment for drug-delivery material fabrication and characterization include dynamic light scattering (DLS) for nano- & microscale particles (with pH titration available), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) , and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Small-animal housing and surgical facilities for in vivo experiments include an IVIS Spectrum imaging system.