Collaborative Research: Development of a Nanofabrication Lab Manual Featuring a Suite of Low-Cost Experiments to Enable Hands-On Training at Community and Technical Colleges

集成电路(IC)或芯片形式的半导体是我们这个由技术驱动的世界不可或缺的一部分。在全球芯片供不应求的情况下，对芯片的需求急剧上升。在上个世纪末之前，美国在芯片制造方面处于世界领先地位。然而，美国现在提供的芯片需求不到全球需求的10%，芯片供应的主导地位由其他国家主导。半导体产品对我们的经济和国家安全至关重要，是美国第五大出口部门，为美国提供了大约25万个就业机会。该项目将探索一种创新的方式，通过消除昂贵而复杂的基础设施(例如，洁净室、制造设备)来增加芯片制造劳动力数量，以满足这一国家需求，传统上需要在该领域培训和教育个人。该项目将开发一份实验室手册，以低成本实验为特色，紧密代表芯片制造行业使用的方法。该手册将以实验为特色，让学生以动手的方式展示他们的学习。手册中的课程将特别设计为可转让给任何社区大学(CC)，这些大学寻求提供微米和纳米技术(即芯片制造)的学位跟踪，以动态满足当地行业需求。教师指南将包括学生评估标准，以衡量学习结果。开发完成后，Partnering CC将审查手册并对实验进行评估。在通过国家会议和专业发展活动广泛传播该手册之前，将进一步优化和评估该手册。这本手册将被用作外展工具和培训资源，以帮助培养和发展填补美国芯片制造行业所需的劳动力。本项目是为了响应增强工程技术和先进半导体制造技师教育尊敬的同事信(22-120)，由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域的技术人员提供教育。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Semiconductors in the form of integrated circuits (ICs), or chips, are an integral part of our technology-driven world. The need for chips has risen sharply while the supply has fallen short of the demand worldwide. Before the end of the last century the United States (US) led the world in chipmaking. However, the US now provides less than 10% of the world need, and the leadership of chip supply is dominated by other countries. Semiconductor products are critical to our economic and national security and rank the fifth largest US export sector providing approximately 250,000 jobs in the United States. This project will explore an innovative way to increase the chipmaking workforce numbers required to meet this national need by eliminating the expensive and complex infrastructure (e.g., cleanrooms, fabrication equipment) traditionally required to train and educate individuals in this area. This project will develop a lab manual featuring low-cost experiments that closely represent the methods used in the chipmaking industry. The manual will feature experiments for students to demonstrate their learning in a hands-on fashion. The lessons in the manual will specifically be designed to be transferrable to any community college (CC) seeking to offer degree tracks in micro and nanotechnology (i.e., chipmaking) to dynamically meet the local industry demand. Instructor guides will include student assessment rubrics to measure learning outcomes. After development, partnering CC’s will review the manual and evaluate the experiments. The manual will be further optimized and evaluated before widespread dissemination through national conferences and professional development activities. This manual will be used as both an outreach tool and a training resource to help cultivate and develop the workforce required to fill the US chipmaking sector. This project, in response to the Enhancing Engineering Technology and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Technician Education Dear Colleague Letter (22-120), is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.