Kevin M. Walsh DUE 9551869 University of Louisville FY1995 $ 217,273 Louisville, KY 40292 ILI - Leadership in Laboratory Development: Engineering Title: An Advanced Undergraduate Laboratory for Microfabrication This project is for the development of a laboratory-based undergraduate course in general microfabrication techniques and processes. Microfabrication was originally developed by the microelectronics industry to batch-fabricate miniature integrated circuits. Only recently has it been applied to other fields and disciplines. The slow infiltration of microfabrication technology into the non-electronic disciplines is due to the fact that microelectronic fabrication techniques have traditionally only been taught to graduate electrical engineering students or undergraduate students specifically studying microelectronic devices. In order for non-electronic interdisciplinary applications of microfabrication to be developed, an appropriate transfer of this technology to the interested audience needs to take place. The laboratory course being developed serves as that missing link by introducing this versatile and powerful technology to a broader audience base. Microfabrication can do for the mechanical and physical world what microelectronic fabrication did for the electronic world. The world of microfabrication has tremendous potential, and numerous applications to a wide spectrum of disciplines are possible. However, the majority of those applications will never be realized unless microfabrication is exposed to a broader audience and introduced earlier into the academic curriculum.
