On the Co-Evolution of Microelectronic Engineering Laboratories and Education at RIT

Abstract

The undergraduate Microelectronic Engineering Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has been in existence since 1982 [1]. Since the founding of the program, integrated circuit technology has progressed from the desk-top PC to mobile devices of unprecedented capability. The lecture and laboratory content of our program which educates future engineers in the fabrication of the integrated circuits that go into these devices has been consistently challenged to keep pace. In addition, over the last two decades the advances in semiconductor technology has been applied to many more fields, such as, nanotechnology, MEMS, chemical and bio sensors, photovoltaics, energy harvesting and displays [2]. Courses which provide the basic semiconductor processing foundation must be coupled with additional elective coursework in these areas as well as new lab requirements [3]. The complexity and cost of the evolving tool set along with tool maintenance puts an additional burden on faculty and staff as exemplified by the recent installation of our ASML Stepper.