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技术驱动的世界不可或缺的一部分。对芯片的需求急剧上升，而供应却低于全球需求。在上个世纪结束之前，美国在芯片制造方面领先于世界。然而，美国现在提供的芯片不到全球需求的10%，芯片供应的领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，是美国第五大出口行业，为美国提供约25万个就业岗位。该项目将探索一种创新的方式，通过消除昂贵和复杂的基础设施（例如，洁净室、制造设备），以培训和教育该领域的人员。 该项目将开发一个实验室手册，其特点是低成本的实验，接近代表芯片制造业中使用的方法。 该手册将为学生提供实验，以实践方式展示他们的学习。手册中的课程将专门设计为可转移到任何寻求提供微米和纳米技术学位课程的社区学院（CC）（即，芯片制造），以动态地满足当地行业的需求。 教师指南将包括学生评估规则，以衡量学习成果。开发完成后，合作CC将审查手册并评估实验。 在通过国家会议和专业发展活动广泛传播之前，将进一步优化和评价该手册。 该手册将被用作推广工具和培训资源，以帮助培养和发展填补美国芯片制造行业所需的劳动力。 本计画为响应“加强工程技术与先进半导体制造技术人员教育致同仁函（22-120）”，是由先进的技术教育计划，重点是技术人员的教育，为先进的资助-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.