Introducing Nanoelectronics into the Electrical Engineering Curriculum

Engineering programs that have introduced nanotechnology into their curriculum typically add material into core classes or have added a separate set of nanotechnology courses. Increasing the number of courses can be a challenge for colleges with limited resources and faculty and it is not easy to make significant changes to the curriculum all in one step. This paper looks at an alternative that is being introduced at the University of Texas at Tyler. The goal is to introduce nanotechnology into select courses while minimizing changes to the curriculum for ease of adoption. The proposed solution is to introduce nanoscale design concepts into existing classes which teach microelectronic-related topics and where nanotechnology will revolutionize the way these circuits are built in the near future. An advantage of this approach is that the students have a prior context to build upon. They can see how state-of-the art microelectronic circuits are currently designed while comparing and contrasting it with the paradigmatic shift offered by nanoelectronic devices. This juxtaposition of technologies is appropriate since a number of proposed nanoelectronic circuits are built upon similar principles and topologies used in current microelectronic technologies. This paper overviews the initial attempts at such an integration in an introductory digital integrated circuits course. Evaluation of this effort through student selfassessment surveys, concept inventory quizzes, and exam and project scores are reported. Plans to improve upon future offerings are also detailed.