Acquisition of an Automated Multipurpose Furnace and Reactive Ion Etcher System for Microscale Fabrication Education and Research at SJSU
Abstract
Our team of multidisciplinary faculty in the Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering at San JosŽ State University (SJSU) proposes to purchase a Bruce BDF-41 diffusion furnace (Amtech Group, Billerica MA, USA) with wet oxide, dry oxide, and annealing capability along with a PlasmaPro 80 reactive ion etch (RIE) system (Oxford Instruments America Inc., Concord, MA, USA). The equipment will be placed and used in the Microscale Process Engineering Lab (MPEL), which is a shared microfabrication facility for education and research at SJSU. Our team is deeply committed to reducing the barriers to underrepresented minority (URM) students participating in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In MPEL we emphasize highly interactive, hands-on experience for undergraduate and graduate students in the areas of semiconductor manufacturing, microfluidics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and biosensor technologies. The proposed furnace and RIE systems will significantly enhance four existing hands-on classes: Introduction to Integrated Circuits Processing and Design, Photovoltaic Fabrication/Testing Lab, Microfluidics Fabrication and Design, and MEMS Fabrication and Design. The equipment will augment existing capabilities in MPEL, which include photolithography, wet etching, physical vapor deposition tools (sputtering and evaporation), thin-film measurement, and electrical testing. The proposed equipment also complements our Materials Characterization and Metrology Center (MCMC), which gives our students hands-on experience with scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and 3-D optical profilometry. The new equipment will also be used as part of High Tech U, a high-school STEM outreach workshop organized by SEMI Foundation (an education outreach affiliate of SEMI, formerly Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International). High Tech U students learn the basics of semiconductor manufacturing and leadership skills, and have been participating in hands-on microfabrication in SJSU s MPEL for over 15 years. The furnace and RIE system will be used by at least six research groups from the Biomedical Engineering, Chemical and Materials Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering departments in the College of Engineering. Projects to be enabled by the new equipment include studies in failure modes of SiC-based transistors, multiphase flow in microscale porous media, thin-film solid-electrolyte interfaces for lithium-ion batteries, microfluidic size-specific RNA purification, and sensing and monitoring of cell-secreted biomarkers. These faculty-led research projects will be conducted by undergraduate and graduate students, many of who are underrepresented minorities. Our students will gain hands-on experience growing, etching, and analyzing semiconductor thin films, and will be better prepared for STEM careers in high-tech engineering fields or advanced graduate studies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 25, 2021
- Source ID
- W911NF2110160
Entities
People
- David Parent
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- San José State University