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Safety at DTU Nanolab

At DTU Nanolab, we are interested in the safety of both, our employees and our users. As we are a multiuser facility, we need to establish working procedures to provide the best possible safety for our working environment. These are based on general safety procedures, EU regulations, and procedures we identified to be important for our working environment. Each user of our facility is expected to comply to these rules.

Before any user (academic or commercial) gets granted access to the labs, she/he needs to go through an introductory program. These programs will equip you with all the prerequisites required for accessing and engaging in safe practical work at DTU Nanolab.Please find more detailed information about the content, schedule, and how to sign up below or on https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access

For your own safety and the safety of other cleanroom users, we cannot admit anybody to the cleanroom who has insufficient English proficiency. Please contact adm@nanolab.dtu.dk or +45 25 57 43 in case of questions.

General Safety at DTU

DTU has a number of general rules and guidelines for how to work safely at university. These rules and safety conditions must be met for all employees and students. These are also the basis for DTU Nanolabs Overall Risk Assessment. Every user should be aware of these general guidelines.

General DTU guideline for work in a laboratory
Evacuation procedure at DTU (part of the Introductory course on DTU Learn)

DTU also has some specific guidelines for handling nanopartiles on campus. These are the basis of the local risk assessment at DTU Nanolab. As an user of DTU Nanolab, you should already be aware of these guidelines from the work at your own lab.

Nanoparticles at DTU (part of the Introductory course on DTU Learn)

Risk Assessment

For individual chemicals, processes and equipment, revelant individual risk assessments are either available or need to be prepared prior to the work in our cleanroom or labs. If available risk assessments do not fully cover the intendet work, the isk assessment either needs be adapted or newly prepared. In these cases, get in contact with the relevant safety representative for DTU Nanolab in building 346/347 or 314/307.

Introductory Courses to Facilities at DTU Nanolab

The extent of the training program depends on which facilities (and equipment) you would like to access. There are generally two main tracks you can follow to access equipment at DTU Nanolab. One track allows you to enter the cleanroomin building 346. The other track provides you with an introduction to facilities outside of the cleanroom in building 346, 347, 314, or 307.

Equipment located in our cleanroom (building 346)

https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/cleanroom-access

Please note that this course gives you access to the cleanroom and the all other accessible facilities in 346. For special labs, f.ex. the Wet Lab, you need to follow the other track to gain access. Students participating in a 3-weeks course need to complete a shortened version of the cleanroom access course.

Equipment or Facilities Outside the Cleanroom (building 307, 314, 346,or 347)

For accessing Fabrication and Characterization Equipment located in building 346 or 347, but outside the cleanroom, please sign up here:

https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/other-facilities

For accessing our Electron Beam Microscopy Equipment located in building 314 or 307, please sign up here:

https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/characterization

After registration for either program, you will be registered in our system by our administration. For access to our electron beam microscopy equipment, the Support Team will assess your application and the responsible coordinator will contact you. For other equipment, you should receive an automatically generated email from DTU Nanolab with information regarding

Log-in data to DTU Learn and labmanger.dtu.dk
Access card: A guest card can be issued immediately. A permanent card will be issued after completing the relevant introductionary course.
Link to the respective introductory course on DTU Learn
- “DTU Nanolab Introductory Course: Cleanroom in B346"
- "DTU Nanolab Introductory Course for 3 week students: cleanroom"
- “DTU Nanolab - Introduction course for Nanolab facility (Not Cleanroom in B346)”

If you register for access to the cleanroom, you will be added to our Cleanroom Mailing List. All information regarding the cleanroom and its equipement will be send to cleanroom mailing list. If you would like to be removed from the cleanroom mailing list, please contact adm@nanolab.dtu.dk.

You can find more information on what Labmanager and Labadviser are and how they work on Labadviser and in the introductory course on DTU Learn.

"DTU Nanolab Introductory Course: Cleanroom in B346"

This introductionary course is mandatory for all users that want to access our cleanroom facilities on their own. The course consists of an online part, a hands-on training and a final examination. You can sign up for the course at https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/cleanroom-access.

After registration, you will be registered in our system by our administration. You should receive an automatically generated email from DTU Nanolab with information regarding

Log-in data to DTU Learn and labmanger.dtu.dk
Access card: A guest card can be issued immediately. A permanent card will be issued after completing the relevant introductionary course.
Link to the introductory course on DTU Learn: “DTU Nanolab Introductory Course: Cleanroom in B346"

The "DTU Nanolab Introductory Course: Cleanroom in B346" online course contains information regarding

Safety
Cleanroom behavior
Introduction to Labmanager (equipment management system)
Introduction to Labadviser (equipment and process information Wiki)
Access agreement

After completing the online course (including the access agreement), you can proceed to the hands-on training with one of our safety team members. In the course you will get a tour through our cleanroom, learn how to dress-up, and get an introduction to chemical handling. It will take about 2.5 - 3 hours. The meeting point is by the main entrance to building 347 (by the seminar room). You can sign up for the practical part on the last page of the online course in DTU Learn. Please note that you will not receive a confirmation for the registration for the hands-on course (only if the course is canceled).

The safety course concludes with a browser-based examination which you get access to directly after the hands-on training. This will take about 15-30 min. It is commonly done immediately after the hands-on training. Once you passed the online exam, you will receive your course certificate and you are ready to go into the cleanroom.

Launch Meeting (and Process Flow Review)

As part of the onboarding process, we want to ensure that new users have all the necessary information for a smooth and successful start in our cleanroom. To support this, we require all new users to participate in a mandatory launch meeting.

This meeting will be held with you - and ideally your supervisor - and will cover key topics such as your material choices, fabrication plans, intended processes, and the tools you plan to use. We will also discuss any required tool training and the matter of cross-contamination between equipment. The goal is to better understand your project and provide the best possible support for your future work in the cleanroom.

This meeting can be held at any time after your registration, but especially for users new to nano- and microfabrication, a meeting at an earlier stage can help with establishing a working process flow. If you already have a fabrication plan or a preliminary process flow, please share it with us in advance so we can prepare accordingly.

Please note that while participation in the launch meeting is mandatory, formal approval of your process flow is not required. All users are expected to adhere strictly to the guidelines and equipment usage rules, with particular attention to preventing cross-contamination between tools. We are happy to assist you in reviewing and refining your process flow to help streamline your work and ensure compatibility with our facility standards. You can find more information on how to create a process flow here.

If you have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out at training@nanolab.dtu.dk.

Request Training on Equipment

After you completed the safety course and had the launch meeting with us, you can start to request training for equipment by sending a request to training@nanolab.dtu.dk. For some of the equipment, we require you to take some online "Tool PackageTraining" (TPT) before proceeding to hands-on training on the machines. You can find more information about the TPTs on Labadviser, or on our homepage at https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/cleanroom-access/equipment-training.

"DTU Nanolab Introductory Course for 3 week students"

This introductionary course is mandatory for students that need to access our cleanroom facilities as part of a 3 week course. This course allows student to access the cleanroom attended by a DTU Nanolab staff member (or teacher on the 3 week course). The course is a slimmed-down version of the "DTU Nanolab Introductory Course: Cleanroom in B346" and consists only of an online part. You can sign up for the course at https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/cleanroom-access/introduction-3-weeks-course. The online course contains information regarding

Safety
Cleanroom behavior
Access agreement

"DTU Nanolab - Introduction course for Nanolab facility (Not Cleanroom in B346)"

This course is mandatory for all users that want to access any equipment located outside of the cleanroom on their own, f.ex. equipment in the basement of building 346 or in the PolyFabLab in 347, or any of the electron microscopes in building 314 or 307. You can sign up for the course at https://www.nanolab.dtu.dk/access/other-facilities.

Please note that the course "DTU Nanolab Introductory Course: Cleanroom in B346" gives you access to some facilities in building 346, e.g. equipment in the basement, or the dicing saw or tabletop SEM on the first floor, while special labs, e.g. the Wet Lab, requires this course to gain access.

“Mandatory study material and quiz”

This online introductory course is divided into several parts. All facilities have a common part dealing with

General lab safety
Introduction to Labmanager (equipment management system)
Introduction to Labadviser (equipment and process information Wiki)
Access agreement

After completing the mandatory part (including the access agreement), you can proceed to the location-specific parts of the introduction. There is no hands-on training connected to this first part. To register for specific facitilities, please click on “Open the Checklist” (opens a new webpage). On this webpage you can select several locations. Please read the information on the check list carefully to be able to select the correct courses.

Once you selected all required parts, pleas return to the course on DTU Learn ("Introduction course for Nanolab facility (Not Cleanroom in B346)"). You will now find additional modules for the selected facilities. Following locations are available:

Building B314/B307

General access to B314/B307
Access to the Prep-lab2 B314 R040
Access to the Softmatter lab B307 R903
Access to Research-lab Optical Microscopy lab B307 R109/R113

Please note that you need to finish the “General access to B314/B307” before you get access to the other three parts.

Building 346 (all facilities outside of the cleanroom)

Access to building 346 (not wet lab)
Access to the wet lab building 346

The course "Access to building 346" is required to gain access to building 346 for labs outside of the cleanroom, f.ex the Laser Micromachining Tool, the Hot Embosser 1, the XRD RotAnode, the dicing saws, or the SEM Tabletop 1. After completion of the online course, you are ready to request training for the respective equipment. There is no hands-on safety training required.

The course "Access to the wetlab" is required to access the Wet Lab (chemical lab) in building 346. It concludes with a short practical introduction to the lab. You can request the an appointment for the practical part by contacting the Safety trainers.

Building 347 (PolyFabLab, SupportLab and Basement labs)

General access to B347
Access to PolyFabLab cleanroom
Access to SupportLab (Not available yet)
Access to PDMS Lab (Not available yet)

Please note that you need to finish the "General access to B347" before you get access to the other three parts.

If you have any question or issues regarding the safety courses offered at DTU Nanolab, please do not hesitate to contact nanolabsupport@nanolab.dtu.dk.