The University's leadership began focusing on interdisciplinary research in 2000 as part of a vision that led to the creation of a new complex called Discovery Park on the southwest edge of the campus in West Lafayette, Ind. Anchoring the park is the Birck Nanotechnology Center (BNC), a $58-million facility that offers researchers an opportunity to work with specialized equipment in an environment that incites intellectual ingenuity and fosters interaction.

The 183,000-sf, two-story BNC, completed in September 2005, includes specialized labs and a nanotechnology incubator. Office space is available for 160 graduate students and 40 faculty and full-time researchers. Full occupancy should be achieved by October 2006.

The BNC also houses two federally funded nanotech research centers—the Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing (INAC) and the Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN). The INAC is a NASA-sponsored research and education center with a focus on the development and integration of nanoelectronic devices, nanosensors, and adaptive systems. The NCN is supported by the National Science Foundation to develop computational tools that enable the design and analysis of devices and components within nanoelectronics, nanobiology, and nanomechanics.

"Programs related to nanomaterials, nanoelectronic and nanomechanical devices, micro/nano integration, nanophotonics, and nanometrology require specialized laboratories that were not available on campus," says David B. Janes, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and research program coordinator at Birck. "In addition, the micro/nano fabrication laboratories, formerly housed in the Electrical and Computational Engineering Department, were being operated beyond their intended capacity in order to meet the demand from across campus."

Discovery Park Motivation

University officials envision Discovery Park as a research hub where multiple disciplines converge to generate new ideas and produce world-class discoveries. The master plan for Discovery Park called for the BNC to be connected physically and programmatically to the Bindley Bioscience Center, which focuses on research in biology and engineering.

"During the design, we had to think about the interaction and cross-fertilization with other centers in the park," says Janes. "All of the buildings in the park reflect interdisciplinary activities involving research endeavors."

The Bindley Bioscience Center is linked to the east side of the BNC via a second-floor walkway. The buildings were co-designed to facilitate a convenient, collaborative work environment for researchers in both centers. Scientists in the BNC and Bindley are undertaking cutting-edge research in the field of nanobiology, which involves both engineering and biological sciences. Nanobiology research is geared toward creating devices, including biochip detectors that combine proteins and other biological molecules with electronic components.

Located next to Bindley is the Burton Morgan Entrepreneurship Center. Still in the planning stages are the Discovery Learning Center, which will focus on developing new ways to educate individuals in the interdisciplinary fields; and the E-Enterprises Center to study e-commerce and long-distance interactions.

The BNC fits well into the mission of Discovery Park because it brings together academic scholars from a multitude of disciplines covering all types of engineering, as well as chemistry, physics, biological sciences, computer sciences, pharmacy, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and other schools from across the campus.

BNC Project Drivers

Most universities that have a major research program are involved in nanotechnology with much of the work being driven by physics, chemistry, biology, and science departments in general. The focus at Purdue is unusual because the engineering disciplines play a much more active role.

Research demonstrating the role of electrical and computer engineering involves scientists building networks of metallic nanoclusters with molecular species integrated between the clusters in order to link one molecule to another. Nanotechnology by its very nature requires researchers to build, image, manipulate, and integrate particles the size of atoms to the point of actually being able to count atoms in structures.

"We need to image and analyze at the nanoscale level and we need metrology. We want to see, quantify, and understand what we do," says Janes. "That is the overall motivation for why we wanted to have a new building, to bring together ideas of traditional micro and nanofabrication with the ideas of nanostructure synthesis and characterization. That is a very broad mission and the building itself belongs to no department."

In order to facilitate open access and interaction, the administrative structure for BNC was established outside the normal organization of academic departments. The Discovery Park and BNC directors report to the provost, the chief academic officer of the University.

Design Process

Purdue representatives played a lead role in the design process with responsibility for code compliance, coordination of the Discovery Park master plan, and monitoring the construction. Participating were the on-campus project manager, campus architect, facilities and code enforcement personnel, as well as the maintenance staff.

Input was gathered from more than 100 faculty and lab staff members during the conceptual design. As the design stage progressed, the list of technical users who offered input was narrowed to between five and eight primary representatives. Members of the lab staff, who have a special insight into the inner-workings of research areas, participated in the design, as well as the monitoring of the construction.

"Strong involvement of users was essential to the definition of spaces, specific requirements, critical adjacencies, and key relationships," notes Janes. "In addition, the goal of designing a building that would be flexible enough for future programs was also well served by the strong user involvement. Many of the design decisions had a direct impact on the ability to achieve the desired performance in the specialized areas."

Specialized Labs

The BNC consists of two wings with the front half dedicated to general labs and offices. The labs feature specialized environments to control vibration, noise, temperature, humidity, and electromagnetic interference. Low vibration is required for high-accuracy measurements and imaging with the use of sensitive equipment such as electron microscopes and scanning probe microscopes.

Although some of the nanostructure labs are situated on a basic slab, two high-accuracy rooms have a keeled slab underneath a walk-on floor that is suspended on air springs for optimum vibration control. The rooms meet the specifications for vibration isolation as set forth by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The high-accuracy rooms also have special control systems to maintain temperature within 0.1 degree C. to avoid heat fluctuations that could cause materials to expand or contract.

The back half of the center features a 25,000-sf cleanroom containing a series of labs that are rated progressively higher based on the number of particles in each cubic foot of air. The "cleanest" lab contains less than 10 particles the size of a micron, or one millionth of a meter, per cubic foot of air. Clean air is continually driven into the labs and then recirculated through filters to provide an unpolluted environment. Each cleanroom lab has a separate entrance and gowning area for researchers.

The cleanroom, located on the second floor, is supported by a sub-fab area beneath it. The sub-fab serves as a mechanical area for the de-ionized water system, vacuum pumps, exhaust, drains, and specialty gases. Utilities can be placed in the sub-fab, freeing up space and providing flexibility to reconfigure the cleanroom to accommodate equipment installation and future changes in processes.

Situated in the corner of the main cleanroom is the biological cleanroom where a germ-free environment is essential to bio-nano research entailing molecules and organisms. Bio-nano research involves uniting biological molecules, such as proteins and DNA, with electronic devices in order to create a new generation of portable detectors. The detectors promise to have a wide array of applications, such as detecting biological and chemical warfare agents in the air and determining if food has been contaminated by bacteria.

The bio-cleanroom, which uses biosafety hoods to contain BSL-2 pathogens, requires a sterile environment free of particles. It is isolated from pumps, motors, and equipment that emit gases, oil particles, and other contaminants.

Researchers from the biological cleanroom and the main nanofabrication cleanroom are able to collaborate on experiments by using double-sided glove boxes shared by both labs.

Interaction and Flexibility

Labs, many of which are positioned on each side of a central service corridor, have overhead utility carriers, modular casework, and movable furniture to provide optimized layout of systems and easy reconfiguration. Flexibility is especially important when installing large pieces of equipment, such as the x-ray photoemission spectrometer and field-emission scanning electron microscope.

In addition to providing lab flexibility, the BNC offers many opportunities for interaction among scholars. A dozen conference rooms, several of which can seat 40 people, are available throughout the building. Another 30 conference rooms are located within a few hundred feet of the BNC at other buildings within Discovery Park.

The atrium and commons area where the front wing of the building intersects with the back cleanroom provide daily opportunities for building occupants to intermingle. Many interior labs have glass walls separating them from the pedestrian corridor, providing interested bystanders with a chance to observe the work taking place inside.

Speaking from Experience

Being positioned as a first-rate academic nanotech facility did not happen overnight and was not achieved without hard work. In fact, planners conducted their own research to determine what design qualities were necessary to provide researchers with the best possible environment.

"We visited a number of labs with comparable programs before we actually got deep into our design," says Janes.

The National Institutes of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., for example, had built prototypes that gave others an opportunity to understand the design and review relevant data.

Finding an experienced architectural firm that also had engineering experience was a key factor in getting the project off to a good start. The firm became involved as a primary participant during the pre-design phase when a vision workshop was held to discuss goals.

End users and their representatives were involved throughout the design, construction, fit-up, and move-in. Involvement from the user groups and the campus officials presented unusual challenges for the architect who often was forced to resolve differences between the groups.

"We should have defined a better procedure for documenting interim design ideas and decisions in a format easily accessible by all parties," says Janes.

Lengthy teleconferences were held to address the confusion that resulted from parties having different versions of the bid documents. Making sure everyone has the most current bid documents rectifies the problem.

Purdue did not have a full-time representative from the architecture and engineering firm on site during construction. Instead, the University relied on period visits by the A&E firm and phone conversations to clarify miscommunication. Having a representative on site would have made it easier to resolve issues.

The importance of having excellent coordination of multiple projects under construction within Discovery Park cannot be understated. The BNC was completed using a design-build-bid delivery method, but it is worth considering options that afford better control over the subcontractors.

If Purdue officials could turn back the clock, they would start the project with a larger construction contingency budget to adequately fund unanticipated expenses.

By Tracy Carbasho

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