Development of an Advanced Semiconductor Laboratory

Engineering faculty and administration at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) have recognized the importance of producing competent scientists and engineers to work in the vast semiconductor industry, especially in the emerging technologies of microelectronics, optoelectronics, and nanotechnology. For this reason, the development of an undergraduate microelectronics minor as well as a more rigorous graduate curriculum has been actively pursued for several years. This paper details the development of an advanced semiconductor processing laboratory course, which serves as a three credit hour capstone course. The course covers circuit layout, semiconductor fabrication, and electrical testing. The following steps were taken in order to accomplish this task: choosing and customizing a computer aided design (CAD) software package for device layout, pMOS process integration on the toolset in the cleanroom facilities at Virginia Tech, and the development of a laboratory manual.