A Laboratory Information Management System (Lims) For An Undergraduate Microchip Fabrication Facility

We have built an 1,800 ft Class 10,000 cleanroom dedicated to teaching the elements of the microchip fabrication process to a multidisciplinary cohort of students from all areas of engineering, science, and even the humanities. This laboratory, equipped with educational tools that allow the fabrication of silicon enhancement mode and depletion mode MOSFETs at about 100 micron rules on 4-inch wafers, is capable of handling up to 500 undergraduates per year—an order of magnitude greater than in typical facilities found at other institutions. In support of this laboratory, we are developing a laboratory information management system (LIMS) that provides for the paperless operation of the facility. It is designed to track personnel, wafers, supplies, and cleanroom performance and to log wafer processing information and test data. We have based our system on LabWare with interfaces to various types of equipment (e.g., particle counters, semiconductor parameter analysis systems, and barcode readers). Data storage is accomplished with a distributed Microsoft SQL–2000 database residing on a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server; all workstations in the lab operate on Windows 2000 Professional. Access to various views of the data acquired in the laboratory is available to students and laboratory managers via standard World Wide Web browsers. Emphasis has been placed on integration of the acquired data with Microsoft Office 2000, the standard desktop publishing tool required of all students by the University. Data retrieved from the system by students will be processed into basic reports and graphs using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. In addition to providing students with information on their individual wafers, the large quantity of data acquired from the hundreds of wafers processed by our students over time provides unique information for incorporation into our accompanying industrial engineering courses in semiconductor manufacturing engineering. Students in these classes will have the opportunity to analyze real-world data from a facility that they have worked in or may easily visit and observe.