Technician Education Materials In Plasma Technology: A Template

Normandale Community College (NCC) in Bloomington, MN, has developed technician-level, educational resources in plasma-aided manufacturing. These resources include instructional modules, laboratory exercises and demonstrations, and faculty-enhancement workshops. The instructional modules range from an introduction to plasma physics to RF power delivery to sputtering materials onto a substrate. Laboratory exercises range from low-cost transmission line experiments to capstone laboratory activities using a table-top sputtering system. Faculty-enhancement workshops include both basic and advanced workshops related to RF plasma processing and measurement. The project, funded through a grant from the Advanced Technological Education program at the National Science Foundation (NSF # 0603175), is an extension of work performed at Portland Community College (NSF # 0101533). This project increases the robustness of the instructional modules, expands the number and scope of the laboratory exercises, and provides basic and advanced facultyenhancement workshops for college and university faculty. This paper provides an overview of the instructional modules, the laboratory exercises, and a brief description of the faculty workshops.