This project provides improvement of a semiconductor manufacturing laboratory that provides industry-specific microelectronics education for undergraduates. To this end, the Electronics Technology Department is obtaining three pieces of semiconductor wafer testing equipment and a vacuum leak detector. While geared in the main toward Electronics Technology students and Core Electronics students, the laboratory affords new capabilities for crossover electives and in-depth projects for students in advanced courses in Manufacturing Technology, Automation, Robotics, Telecommunications, Computer Maintenance, Drafting and Design, Information Processing, and Industrial Management. With high technology used to teach high technology, the semiconductor manufacturing lab emulates current trends in industry and provides the students with the higher skill levels required for success in this increasingly complex field. The new equipment is programmable, process-critical equipment that allows students to make wafer tests and measurements usually exclusively limited to small numbers of engineering students at 4-year degree schools. They produce, from the first wafer cleaning to the final electrical test, in real time in a controlled M 4.5 (Class 1000) environment, integrated circuits that differ from those produced in commercial fabs only in their geometries.
