Research Facility MCMM

Manufacturing & Characterisation of Materials & Microsystems

The research centre Manufacturing & Characterisation of Materials & Microsystems (MCMM), a close collaboration with the department Precision and Microsystems Engineering, facilitates research on novel durable and sustainable materials, multifunctional microsystems, and their manufacturing in order to increase performance and address the need to reduce environmental burden and materials scarcity.

It provides researchers with state of the art equipment for manufacturing as well as characterisation of composition, structure, morphology and properties. The MCMM Centre is uniquely positioned among nanolabs that focus on singulated functional nanostructures, micro-fabricationlabs for integrated circuits and micro-electromechanical systems, and meso-scale precision equipment labs. This enables the development of next generation sustainable materials, processes and machines for the analysis and structuring of spatial structures and surfaces across small scales with molecular precision and high degree of function integration, that are potentially compatible with manufacturing in industrially relevant quantities.

Centrally located on the TU Delft campus, the MCMM Centre serves researchers in materials science and engineering and mechanical microsystems engineering, and is strongly linked with industry. The MCMM centre is vital to materials and microsystems research addressing societal challenges in a circular economy. 

The scientific fields for which the MCMM Centre is crucial include sustainable fabrication of high performance materials with enhanced lifetime, for instance by Additive Manufacturing, considering both bulk properties and surface/interface behaviour; recyclability of complex materials and high-tech microsystems to their virgin quality without compromising environment; controlled degradability for biomedical applications, material recovery or biodegradability in waste facilities; material structures as alternatives for rare or intrinsically eco-unfriendly materials; integrating functionality in material systems and architectured materials including strategies for efficient separation or disassembly techniques for material recovery; design for the life cycle of material complexes.

Information on specific equipment can be found via http://materialsequipment.4tu.nl