9450876 Vanasupa This project focusses on enhancing materials engineering education at Cal Poly in the area of advanced materials synthesis and processing. With the funds provided by this grant, we will purchase a sputtering system and an ellipsometer to complete the instrumentation required for a microelectronics processing lab. Microelectronics processing is an ideal setting for learning the relationship between materials processing and the resulting properties: the materials used, like silicon, have properties that are highly sensitive to processing conditions, clearly demonstrating the link between the processing conditions and the material properties. Microelectronics processing also exposes the materials engineering student to a spectrum of engineering materials, involving polymers, ceramics and metals.
