Hands-On Experience-Based Comprehensive Curriculum for Microelectronics Manufacturing Engineering Education

Abstract

Microelectronic product consumers may already be expecting another paradigm shift with smarter phones over smart phones, but the current status of microelectronic manufacturing engineering education (MMEE) in universities hardly makes up the pace for such a fast moving technology paradigm shift. The purpose of MMEE is to educate four-year university graduates to work in the microelectronics industry with up-to-date knowledge and self-motivation. In this paper, we present a comprehensive curriculum for a four-year university degree program in the area of microelectronics manufacturing. Three hands-on experienced-based courses are proposed, along with a methodology for undergraduate students to acquire hands-on experience, towards integrated circuits (ICs) design, fabrication and packaging, are presented in consideration of manufacturing engineering education. Semiconductor device and circuit design course for junior level is designed to cover how designed circuits progress to micro-fabrication by practicing full customization of the layout of digital circuits. Hands-on experienced-based semiconductor fabrication courses are composed to enhance students’ motivation to participate in self-motivated semiconductor fab activities by performing a series of collaborations. Finally, the Microelectronics Packaging course provides greater possibilities of mastered skillsets in the area of microelectronics manufacturing with the fabrication of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and board level assembly for microprocessor applications. The evaluation of the presented comprehensive curriculum was performed with a students’ survey. All the students responded with “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” for the manufacturing related courses. Through the development and application of the presented curriculum for the past six years, we are convinced that students’ confidence in obtaining their desired jobs or choosing higher degrees in the area of microelectronics manufacturing was increased. We confirmed that the hypothesis on the inclusion of handson experience-based courses for MMEE is beneficial to enhancing the motivation for learning.

1. INTRODUCTION

Microelectronics technology has been developed since the invention of semiconductor devices, and it is still being improved to satisfy consumers’ needs for faster and smaller handheld devices with more reliability and less cost. Looking back momentarily, personal computers in the early 90’s replaced hand written or mechanical typed documents with volumes of printed documents compiled by word processors, and the wired modem communication in the mid 90’s and internet technology in the late 90’s changed the world in diverse aspects. These were the pioneer examples of the paradigm shift in microelectronics engineering. Mobile communication technology augmented mobility on telecommunication, and recently, the advancement of smart phone technology has caused the next paradigm shift in microelectronics. It perhaps can be projected that the next shift will be toward application processors (AP) and power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for smart phones and “smarter phones.” These require microelectronics manufacturing technology for smaller, faster, multi-functional, reliable, and low-cost integrated circuits (ICs).

Microelectronics, in its definition, is the study and manufacturing of electronic components that are very small. Circuit design with electronic components—transistors, capacitors, inductors, resistors, and diodes—is crucial for developing microelectronic products, and most university engineering education courses focus on circuit designs of analog, digital, RF and mixed signal circuits in the form of ICs. It is common for undergraduate courses in many Electrical Engineering programs to offer courses titled Electrical circuits, Semiconductor and Electronic circuits, VLSI circuit design, and Analog circuits design. Although manufacturing technology for the designed circuits is another part of microelectronics, it is seldom offered or considered in undergraduate courses in most university. In the Korean microelectronics job market, a microelectronics circuit designer position requires either a graduate degree from high-ranked schools or several years of field experience, and this would not be the only case in the Korean semiconductor industry. From my teaching and supervision of undergraduate students at Myongji University for the last ten years, a greater portion of students are working in the area of manufacturing technology than in circuit design. This statistic became the motivation to develop hands-on experienced-based microelectronics manufacturing engineering education (MMEE) as presented in this paper.

In the early 90’s, with the development of the personal computer, Santa Clara University took a bold step towards facing the new challenge in many ways with a vision to improve the quality of undergraduate microelectronics education by providing hands-on experience [1]. Boise State University announced a successful microelectronics program with a goal to produce high-quality graduates who were well-prepared to make immediate technical contributions, and a hands-on teaching approach was provided to students to give them a distinct advantage in the job marketplace over graduates who had received a strictly theoretical education [2]. Tummala et al. noted that on-the-job training was the sole source of packaging education because of the absence of electronic system packaging at higher education institutions. The Packaging Research Center (PRC) at Georgia Institute of Technology presented a strategy for PRC educational programs with the importance of hands-on courses although it required an excessive budget to maintain the related facilities [3]. More recently, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) presented a microelectronics course for undergraduates with an emphasis on manufacturing. Fuller at RIT reported that the majority of the graduates in Microelectronic Engineering program are employed as process or product engineers in semiconductor manufacturing [4].

Likewise, more than 80% of senior students at Myongji University seek jobs in the microelectronics manufacturing industry, and the rest pursue master’s degrees to improve their opportunities for research and development positions in the same industry. The trend of world-wide microelectronics manufacturing is continuously moving towards the Asian region, including Korea, Taiwan, China, and Singapore. Consequently, employment in semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics packaging is growing with the increased production volume of application processors (APs) for smart phones. To meet the current needs for microelectronics manufacturing engineering, the department of Electronic

Engineering at Myongji University (MJEE) designed three core courses for semiconductor and packaging manufacturing engineering fully composed of hands-on experiences. Under the mid-sized private university environment, providing hands-on lab courses for semiconductor processing is needed to overcome numerous limitations in training equipment and the workforce; however, we have successfully demonstrated the potential of our program. In this paper, we present the detailed curricula for three microelectronics manufacturing engineering related courses, and show how undergraduate students acquired hands-on experiences on circuit layout, fabrication and packaging. Section II describes the trend of microelectronics technology for establishing the purpose of microelectronics manufacturing technology education. Section III illustrates the comprehensive curricula for MMEE. Assessment of learning with the suggested curriculum is presented in Section IV, followed by the conclusion in Section V.

 

2. TRENDS OF MICROELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING TECH

Silicon integrated circuit (IC) design should address several functional blocks such as analog, digital complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), high-density low-power system memory, mixed-signal technology and system-on-chip integration. Circuit courses offered in universities the world over are generally Electrical Circuits, Microelectronic Circuits Design, Analog Circuit Design, and Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits design. The microelectronics circuit courses are based on device engineering, and the common objective of both Analog and VLSI circuit courses is to design functional circuits. The IC design courses rather focus on the design of functional blocks, and it is apt to miss the importance of a custom layout technique for photomask behind. Core-based system-on-chip (SOC) design may prefer the place-and-routing (P&R) technique to the custom layout; however, design verification through the fabricated photomask, which contains metal lines and vias, cannot be omitted for successful wafer fabrication.

In terms of metallization for chip integration, aluminum (Al), which had been used as interconnecting material over the decades in integrated circuits (ICs) manufacturing, has been rapidly replaced with copper (Cu) in a majority of IC products because of product reliability from electro-migration. Previously, the switching speed of a semiconductor was a major factor for determining chip speed, but RC delay, resulting from high density metal interconnections, became the more dominant factor for chip speed because of thinner dielectric layers and narrower line spaces. A report on strategies to reduce RC delay in 45nm back-end-of-line (BEOL) supports the trend of semiconductor interconnection technology [5]. With the increased demand of high functionality in mobile electronics, the number of I/O and signal transmission speed became crucial issues in microelectronics devices. Conventionally employed wire bonding was recognized as not only an additional parasitic source in high-frequency mobile applications due to the increased inductance caused by the wiring loop, but also as a hurdle for minimizing the IC packaging footprint. To alleviate these concerns, chip bumping technologies such as flip chip bumping and pillar bumping have been suggested as promising chip assembly methods to provide high-density interconnects and lower signal propagation delays [6,7].

According to the 2011 Semiconductor Equipment and Material Initiative (SEMI) report, Korea consumed 16% of materials and took 20% of the equipment market for semiconductor manufacturing worldwide as presented in Fig. 1. Saha defined the role of today’s semiconductor foundries for new product development (NPD) by six core competencies; Device Modeling, Technology-CAD (T-CAD), ECAD & Design Kits, Circuit Design, Testing & Characterization, and Packaging [8]. Conventional IC foundries mostly focused on foundry fabrication service by receiving foundry service orders from customers and by outsourcing pre-manufacturing design services and post manufacturing packaging to vendors and partners. However, the future foundry industry will need to provide in-house design as well as chip packaging. In this sense, microelectronics manufacturing engineers indeed need to have combined knowledge of device engineering, circuit design, fabrication technology, packaging technology, and product definition. Device engineers may not necessarily know how to design circuits, but it is certainly beneficial to know how the device responds in a given circuit. Circuit engineers may not require semiconductor fabrication technology other than metal layers, but understanding process technology can provide the benefit of preventing the circuit from burning out due to excessive current flow in the metal line. It would be highly beneficial for semiconductor process engineers to have knowledge of process equipment technology to improve the process yield. Likewise, it would be desirable for microelectronics manufacturing engineers to acquire the aforementioned knowledge to achieve the ultimate goal of microelectronics manufacturing: cost, quality, variability, yield and reliability.

Fig. 1.2011 semiconductor equipment and material initiative (SEMI) report: Semiconductor Equipment Markets.

 

3. COMPREHENSIVE CURRICULUM

The Department of Electronic Engineering at Myongji University (MJEE) consists of 15 faculty members and 450 enrolled students. MJEE offers four tracks of interest: Telecommunication, Analog circuits, Digital circuits and system, and Microelectronics. The Microelectronics track puts an emphasis on semiconductor related topics such as device physics and operation, fabrication process and equipment technology, and microelectronics packaging technology. Device physics and device engineering courses are offered to benefit CMOS devices and circuit design and layout, further facilitating hands-on IC fabrication course in the following semester.

Figure 2 shows the curricula flow in the area of Microelectronics at MJEE.

Fig. 2.Undergraduate curricula for Microelectronics at MJEE.

3.1 Introductory level: semiconductor engineering and semiconductor devices

Sophomore students are exposed to introductory courses such as Semiconductor Engineering (EE211) followed by two semesters of general physics courses. The Semiconductor Physics course rather focuses on silicon PN junction phenomenon in a solid state material than on detailed quantum mechanics, and it ends with how the diodes respond in alternative current (AC) circuits. In-depth knowledge of semiconductor device physics with quantum theory is ultimately desired for a device engineer, but it often takes away the crude interest of students in Microelectronics. Once students acquire qualitative understanding of PN junction theory, they learn the operational mechanisms of fundamental semiconductor devices for metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), and advanced semiconductor devices in the Semiconductor Devices (EE320). The course mostly covers the operational mechanism of devices and how they function in the analog and digital circuits. No device design is pursued in this course.

3.2 Junior and senior levels: wafer fabrication

In moving towards a manufacturing engineering education, MJEE offers a course, Semiconductor Fabrication (EE317), in the 2nd semester of the junior year. This course was originally offered as a three hours lecture in 2004 and simultaneously offered on-line in 2009 and 2010. Recently, the course was redesigned as a three-hour lab course. The course objective is to elevate the understanding of semiconductor materials, equipment and process technology while students operate the processing equipment by themselves. The class size should be limited to a maximum of 15 to ensure enough opportunities for hands-on experience with tool operation as well as process knowledge. The more hands-on opportunities are achieved, the better the motivation and participation. Therefore, MJEE is determined to provide more practical hands-on experience to undergraduate students to further develop their interest in microelectronics manufacturing before they graduate.

The Division of Human Resource Development (HRD) center at Myongji University has been offering several 40-hour reverse education programs for a hands-on semiconductor fabrication course for small and mid-sized semiconductor related industries. The participating trainees responded that the course was very useful for engineers in the semiconductor industry in terms of enriching their knowledge of semiconductor fabrication. One of the feedbacks that encouraged faculty at MJEE to develop hands-on based undergraduate courses was that participating trainees were allowed to perform their own wafer processing. Although the course has been developed and operated for several years, transferring a vocational reverse education program to an undergraduate class was not as simple as was expected. Regular undergraduate courses are offered for a given length of time on a weekly basis, but the semiconductor fabrication processes may not fit into the scheduled hours. In addition, processing equipment, unlike personal computers, cannot be provided to all students in the lab at the same time. To alleviate this concern, the class is divided into five groups of three students, and the lab instructor demonstrates how to operate the equipment to the first team. While the first team is under instruction, the second team observes the instructions for the first team. Once the first team has finished the process, they assume the role of lab instructor to demonstrate what they have done (or learned) to the second team. At the same time, the third team looks over the second team’s shoulders. The lab instructor can bring the first team to the next step of the process, leaving experienced teaching assistants for the previous process to help students involved in the lab activity.

Figure 3 illustrates how the lab instruction and the student group activity took place in the training lab.

Fig. 3.Figure (a) shows the lab instructor teaching photolithography to the first group of three students while the second group learns over the first group’s shoulder, and Figure (b) shows a student operating the sputtering tool for the third team while a teaching assistant helps the student with the tool.

The wafer fabrication lab provides hands-on training on metal interconnection technology and wafer level chip scale packaging (WLCSP). As shown in the weekly schedule provided in Table I, the lab covers cleaning, thermal wet-oxidation, PECVD SiO2 deposition, wet etching, Cu/TiN/Ti metal stack interconnection, photolithography, polymer passivation, solder bumping process, and necessary inspection and metrology. As illustrated in Fig. 4, single layered Cu metal stack interconnection processes and WLCSP with 600 μm lead free solder balls were successfully performed for two semesters. The photomask design contains various patterns of lines, T-shape gates, squares, vias, and connected pads in the peripheral. A single copper metal stack layer with various test patterns of lines and vias and 400 μm by 400 μm interconnected pads are shown in Fig. 5. Mask M1 allows metal interconnection patterns on 4” wafers with AZ1512 positive tone photoresist, and Cu/TiN/Ti layers are wet etched in two steps. We employed WPR, a photosensitive dielectric material manufactured by JSR Micro, which is specifically developed as a dielectric material for multi-chip packaging (MCP) and package-on-package (PoP). Spin-coating at 1,000 rpm, i-line UV exposure, and 1 hour curing at 110℃ creates an approximately 25 μm thick passivation layer before performing wafer level soldering. A participating student’s fabricated wafer is presented in Fig. 6 as an example. Some amount of lack of theoretical knowledge on the semiconductor process technology was observed during the assessment of students’ achievement, but the additional on-line supplementary lectures helped to increase the achievement. The supplementary on-line information contains details on 300 mm semiconductor wafer processing technology for eight major unit processes: diffusion, etch, CVD, photo, metallization, CMP, testing and packaging.

Table 1.Weekly lab schedule for semiconduictor material and fabrication(EE317).

Fig. 4.M1 mask layout on the left and 20 mm by 20 mm die reticle image on the right. Peripheral pads are designed for solder ball mounting for practicing chip scale wafer level packaging (CSWLP).

Fig. 5.Photomask design layout: (a) 5” quartz glass mask layout for a contract aligner and (b) is a 20 mm by 20 mm single die pattern.

Fig. 6.Photographic image of chip scale wafer level package (WLCSP) fabricated by a student. Sn/Ag3/Cu 0.5 micro-solder balls in 600 μm size were used.

3.3 Senior level: CMOS IC design

The CMOS devices is covered in junior level courses. Acquired knowledge on NMOS and PMOS operation in Semiconductor Engineering is directly used for understanding how CMOS inverter works. A three-hour introductory lecture on process integration technology is provided for enhanced device design and circuit layout in the CMOS IC design course. Two hours of lectures are provided on theory for the CMOS device design, and one hour of design and layout follows two days later. The course is offered on a weekly basis. Weekly lectures are offered two days before the lab in order to allow enough time to review the lecturing material and prepare the lab design. The course objective for CMOS IC Design is to understand how CMOS devices work by actually simulating devices and circuits, and how individual layers of the integrated circuit are formed by designing the transistor level full custom layout.

The first part of the design lab is intended to design two-input AND gate with one NAND gate and one inverter, and students are asked to design an AND gates with poly-silicon and 1.8V of positive supply voltage (VDD). To evaluate the performance of the designed AND gate, students are asked to consider response delay, including tr (rising time), tf (falling time), tpdr (rising propagation delay), and tpdf (falling propagation delay) by varying the length of the metal line, the size of the active region, and the scaling down factor λ. Through the design lab, students grasp the concept of device miniaturization, which is one of the most significant factors for improving device delay in their simulation. The second part of the design lab aims to design a functioning CMOS digital circuit. The suggested design procedure is as follows:

1. Define a design specification. 2. Write a truth table and simplify the logic expression. 3. Draw a logic schematic and simulate the logic output. 4. Create a basic layout of the logic circuit. 5. Simulate the logic and evaluate the system delay. 6. Find a critical path for signal delay. 7. Modify the layout to reduce the delay. 8. Compare the system delay.

An example of a student’s design project is provided in Fig. 7 to demonstrate the design lab. By performing such a layout design lab procedure, students can understand the mechanism of circuit delay and extend their microelectronics circuit knowledge to device fabrication.

Fig. 7.Student design example of 2 bit multiplier for the second phase of CMOS design lab.

3.4 Senior level: microelectronics packaging

Microelectronics assembly and packaging technology or “Microelectronics Packaging” is a key element for current semiconductor manufacturing and product development. Much of the skill set needed to understand and excel with the latest packaging technology requires multidisciplinary background knowledge of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Material Science, Chemical Engineering, and Industrial Engineering. For this reason, microelectronics packaging education has been limited to mostly graduate level courses in universities. Intel Semiconductor at Shanghai, China and Guilin University of Electronic Technology (GUET) initiated “Intel-GUET Microelectronic Packaging & Assembly Technology Faculty Camp” in 2008 to promote the Chinese professional education of electronic manufacturing engineering [9]. The program includes multidisciplinary courses, including IC manufacturing, CMOS integration process, microelectronics assembly and packaging, reliability, and lead-free electronics manufacturing. Identifying the core elements of diverse disciplines, combining them into a base knowledge set, and refining the specific skills required for actual packaging manufacturing as desired for successful education on microelectronics packaging manufacturing.

The Microelectronics Packaging course (EE417) at MJEE is designed to enhance students’ adaptability to real-world topics in the area of microelectronics manufacturing. A one-semester senior level course cannot cover in-depth knowledge of packaging engineering, but knowing the terminologies and related technologies is enough to make breakthroughs for the next level of microelectronics manufacturing engineering. The course objectives are the followings;

1. To connect electronic engineering background knowledge to practical microelectronics manufacturing engineering 2. To understand the terminology and technology in microelectronics packaging 3. To build multi-disciplinary knowledge in the area of microelectronics manufacturing engineering

The course consists of two hours of lecture and one hour of printed circuit board (PCB) design and assembly on a weekly basis. The first three lectures provide reviews on what students have learned during their undergraduate program to enhance students’ adaptability to multidisciplinary topics. Then, a weekly selected topic on microelectronics packaging technology is covered for seven consecutive weeks as presented in Table II. A one hour lab is also offered to students to experience PCB artwork, fabrication, and chip assembly. The lab is operated with peer assistance under the supervision of both the professor and a lab teaching assistant. Students are asked to make their own microprocessor control board by performing schematic & PCB artwork drawing and board fabrication & assembly. It seems like a significant amount of work, but students complete all the necessary circuit works from the microprocessor application course, developed by Prof. Kim at MJEE, in their junior year [10]. Transferring the circuit on a breadboard to actual PCB fabricated on their own is certainly an unforgettable experience for novice microelectronics engineers, and an example of student fabricated PCB is presented in Fig. 8.

Table 2.Microelectronics Packaging course curriculum for 16 weeks.

Fig. 8.Student fabricated microprocessor board: (a) before assembly and (b) after assembly.

 

4. ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING

The purpose of the presented comprehensive microelectronics manufacturing education program through hands-on experience is to provide concurrent engineering educational contents in the area of microelectronics for fast moving high-end manufacturing technology. It is also desirable for a microelectronics manufacturing engineer to acquire this knowledge for the ultimate goal of microelectronics manufacturing: cost, quality, variability, yield, and reliability. Bohn and Lapré stated that although deliberate learning takes place almost constantly in semiconductor fabrication fab, no changes are made unless they have been tested experimentally because of the high complexity of the fabrication process [11].

This is not because of the high technology environment, but because of the high degree of complexity and sensitivity in the manufacturing system. Therefore, the importance of hands-on experience-based education cannot be overemphasized for successful microelectronics manufacturing engineering education (MMEE).

A university engineering educational course should consider both quantitative evaluation (i.e. score-based performance evaluation) and qualitative evaluation on learning. Academic credits for completing the courses are determined by the instructors according to the students’ academic achievement on assignments, quizzes, and exams. Assessment as learning focuses on students’ knowledge of their own thought through the process of learning, and it can be evaluated by end-of-semester surveys on students’ understanding of the course and by focus group interview. This comprehensive assessment augments the benefit of the development of newly developed curricula. The end-of-year course survey limits the scope within the course under-evaluation, but a comprehensive assessment as learning for hands-on experience-based courses should consider: 1) to what degree the students remember the contents of the individual courses taken; 2) how much students satisfy their expectations with the individual courses taken; 3) how much students recognize the relationship to related courses. Out of 99 registered senior students, 63 participated in the comprehensive survey.

Figure 9 shows the survey results regarding the understanding of fundamental topics. One of the questions in the survey was as follows: “I understand the characteristics and how it works for 1) PN junction diode, 2) bipolar junction transistor (BJT), and 3) metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). The percentages that selected “Strongly agree” and “Agree” were 19% and 48%, respectively. Since the fundamental theoretical courses are offered in the second year, the participating senior students may be less confident to agree strongly; however, compared with the selection of “Average” by 29%, we found that there was room to improve students’ topical understanding on fundamental theoretical courses on semiconductor physics and devices.

Fig. 9.Students’ survey on the understanding of fundamental courses, with the statement of “I understand the characteristics and how it works for; 1) PN junction diode, 2) bipolar junction transistor (BJT), and 3) metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET).” The number of students that responded is 64 for Semiconductor Engineering and 61 for Semiconductor Engineering.

Figure 10 shows the survey results for hands-on courses on CMOS IC Design, Semiconductor Materials and Fabrication, and Microelectronics Packaging. Since the hands-on courses listed above are offered to junior and senior level students as elective courses, the number of participants in the survey varied. The corresponding questions are presented in TABLE III. It is notable that students expressed confidence in their learning with the answer of “Strongly Agree” or “Agree.” The satisfaction with “Microelectronic packaging” shown in Fig. 10 is very high compared to others, and is due to the term project which combines associated topics from the previous classes in their curricular. Compared to the theory based courses described in Fig. 9, students responded that they understood more through hands-on experience-based courses. Results for the question “The hands-on course satisfied my expectation” are presented in Fig. 11. As shown, 88% of the students answered with “Strongly Agree” and “Agree,” and this shows a very promising feedback for hands-on experience-based courses from students. Students also reported that they had been more actively participating in lectures as well as lab hours because they could experience and practice.

Fig. 10.Students’ survey on understanding in hands-on experiencedbased courses.

Table 3.Statements of the students’ survey on hands-on experience-based courses.

Fig. 11.Students’ survey regarding meeting their expectations with the statement; “The hands-on course satisfied my expectations.”

Interaction with colleagues also triggered active participation in the courses. We asked students how well they understood the comprehensive curriculum in MJEE as shown in Fig. 12(a). It is surprising that the answers with “Strongly Agree” and “Agree” comprise 87% as shown in Fig. 12(b). Professors assume that students retain their understanding of the lectured material and the relationship among the courses they have taken, but the assumption often fails to meet professors’ expectation of comprehensive understanding of the curriculum.

Fig. 12.Figure (a) curriculum of microelectronics manufacturing engineering with related courses and (b) student survey on the understanding of related courses for microelectronics subject.

Figure 13 shows the results of a focus group interview (FGI) involving 10 senior students who took five courses from the microelectronics track presented in Fig. 12(a). The purpose of the FGI interview was to assess learning through a comprehensive MMEE curriculum. Answers show that students were satisfied with the microelectronics courses, and they also replied with “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” regarding recommending the hands-on courses to others. Although the number of FGI interviewees was only 10, it is apparent that providing the MMEE curriculum with hands-on experience based courses enabled students to realize the relationship among the courses they had taken and establish profound knowledge of why they learned such varying topics in electronic engineering. It would be preferable for students to gain more knowledge of the next level, but the outcome of the MMEE sets a profound base for the next level of learning as microelectronics manufacturing engineers.

Fig. 13.FGI interview result. Degree of satisfaction with microelectronics courses on the top and likelihood of recommending hands-on experience based courses on the bottom.

 

5. CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, we present how microelectronics manufacturing engineering education (MMEE) has been performed with the hands-on experience-based comprehensive curriculum. The purpose of MMEE, herein, is to educate engineering students to become engineers who can actively work in the area of semiconductors and the microelectronics packaging manufacturing industry. Five core courses on microelectronics, such as Semiconductor Device Physics, Semiconductor Engineering, CMOS IC Design, Semiconductor Materials and Fabrication, and Microelectronics Packaging, were offered with three hands-on experienced-based courses to junior and senior level students. Starting with a theoretical study of semiconductor device physics and characteristics, the scope expanded to device and simple CMOS integrated circuit design and layout. Wafer fabrication and PCB fabrication enhanced students’ interest in the area of microelectronics manufacturing. The evaluation of the presented comprehensive curriculum was performed through surveys on students. All the students answered with “Strongly Agree” and “Agree” for the manufacturing related courses, and we confirmed that the hypothesis on the inclusion of hands-on experience-based courses for MMEE cannot be denied. As a result, more than 45% students in the department choose the microelectronics engineering track, and more than 50% of graduates from the department started their carrier in the same field.