Teaching Microelectronic Process Behavioral Models To Non Materials Majors

Although the number of new microfabrication facilities to be built over the next 10 years is a bit illusive at this point, it is clear that there will be a major increase in the production of semiconductor components. This dramatic increase will demand a substantial addition of technically skilled people to meet the manufacturing requirements of such devices. Personnel requirements not only include material scientists and engineers but a host of competent support people who together will implement the technology roadmap for this industry. The task at hand is to develop a workforce that must have a new skill set which has not previously been the focus of any existing organized technical curriculum. This paper will address one approach to presenting the important process steps in microdevice fabrication to a non-materials major audience. Particular attention will be spent on the problems and challenges associated with introducing what the technical demands and expectations of the industry will be, presenting the material process unit operations as visual icons, associating sequences of these icons with material electrical properties, and finally developing a set of detailed but general process behavioral models which could be commonly used in microdevice fabrication.