PARKE, Stephen, BURKETT, Susan, DUTTAGUPTA, Siddhartha, HOFHINE, Mark, ERICKSON, Gary1, HOLSCHER, Rick2, BOOROM, Ken3, ROSATO, John4, CLIFFORD, Randy5
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Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, Idaho 83725 2 Micron Technology, 8000 S. Federal Way, Boise, Idaho 83707 3 Hewlett-Packard, 11311 Chinden Blvd., Boise, Idaho 83707 4 SCP Global Technology, 400 Benjamin Lane, Boise, Idaho 83704 5 Zilog, Inc., 1401 N. Kings Road, Nampa, Idaho 83687
Abstract: This paper describes Boise State's successful new microelectronics program, including facilities, laboratories, curriculum, and research projects. Since its beginning in 1997, this program has grown rapidly and is experiencing tremendous industry support, enabling excellent lab facilities and equipment, as well as abundant internship and collaborative research opportunities. Meeting industry educational needs through various video course delivery modes and alternative schedules will be discussed. Also described is the Idaho Microfabrication Lab, a small Class 1000 cleanroom utilizing 150mm tools, which was completed in Fall 1998. The adjoining CAD lab and VLSI test/device characterization lab and the undergraduate courses utilizing these labs will also be described. A Master's level program in microelectronics is planned to begin in 2000. Initial research activities and strategy will be discussed along with a modular cleanroom expansion plan
In 1996, the State of Idaho transformed what had been a University of Idaho satellite engineering program into a new College of Engineering at Boise State University. BS degree programs in Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering were established and a nationwide search for 20 new faculty was successfully performed. The microelectronics program is the flagship of BSU’s new BSEE program. Laboratory planning/construction/instrumentation and first course offerings began in spring 1997. The early status of this program was reported at the 1997 UGIM Conference [1].
There are now over 100 students taking upper-division microelectronics classes at BSU. The program has received national recognition during its first two years [2,3] and is viewed as one of the catalysts for Boise's rapid high-tech growth [4]. The ABET accreditation visit for this new program was completed in October 1998, following the first graduates in May 1998. In addition, the BSU College of Applied Technology recently initiated a new two-year, Sematech-sponsored AAS degree program with more than 50 students enrolled in the first semester. These two programs are teaming together and sharing laboratory resources. A Masters-level graduate program in microelectronics is planned to begin next year, in order to meet the continuing education requirements of engineers who come to Idaho to establish their careers.
Research projects are beginning in the areas of: SOI CMOS device modeling, ultra-low power RF-CMOS IC's for wireless applications, 3-D microstructures, environmentally-friendly CO2 wafer cleaning, advanced ferroelectric and ferromagnetic materials, photolithography and optoelectronic devices.
Several of these research projects are in collaboration with local microelectronics companies such as: Micron Technology, Micron Communications, Micron Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, Jabil, American Microsystems Inc., Amkor, SCP Global Technologies, Extended Systems, In-System Design, Teradyne, Cascade Microtech, and Zilog. The generous support and goodwill of these companies for BSU's new program is evident in several areas: guiding the program through the Industry Advisory Board, mentoring engineering students, sponsoring senior design projects, providing adjunct faculty, giving plant tours, providing internships, placing graduates, donating lab equipment, and helping install that equipment. The most notable support was a $6 million challenge donation by Micron Technology, toward the construction of the new 64,000 ft2 Micron Engineering Center, which was matched by $6 million from other companies and individuals.
This new facility housing offices, laboratories, and classrooms is shown on the following page.
It will be completed in October 1999, and along with the Morrison Civil Engineering Building and the Engineering Technology Building, will form an Engineering and Technology Campus centered around a circular student plaza and fountain (shown above). BSU's long-term vision is to become a national center for microelectronics education and research.
BSU's goal is to produce high-quality graduates who are well-prepared to make immediate technical contributions and to help shape the rapid change that characterizes this industry. Meeting this goal requires a "hands-on" teaching approach, in which students have the opportunity to become familiar with industry-standard design tools, processing tools, cleanroom infrastructure & protocol, and metrology & test techniques. These experiences, combined with a sound curriculum in the basic engineering sciences, will give students a distinct advantage in the job marketplace, over graduates of programs who have received a strictly theoretical education.
BSU has implemented this teaching approach by creating three new laboratories for design, fabrication, and testing, which have been utilized by five new lab courses so far. The first new laboratory is a semiconductor process, device, and integrated circuit CAD lab. It was funded in 1997 by a $250,000 grant from Hewlett-Packard and consists of a network of four HP-UNIX servers and 12 engineering workstations. Silvaco's process/device design finite-element software is used to simulate and visualize new semiconductor devices and structures. The Virtual Wafer Fab package allows the design of a new semiconductor device structure to be thoroughly simulated and optimized from beginning to end, before attempting to prototype it in the fabrication lab. PROLITH software is used to simulate various photolithography design options. An integrated circuit design tool package from Cadence is used for designing and laying out chip designs for fabrication by MOSIS foundries. This CAD environment is linked to HSPICE for circuit simulation and SYNOPSYS for high-level VLSI design.
The second new laboratory is a VLSI test & device characterization lab. This lab, made possible by donations from Micron, AMI, Teradyne, Cascade Microtech, and HP, contains three complete IV/CV wafer probing stations, where 6-8 inch silicon wafers are micro-probed, electrically characterized, and modeled. Each station is equipped with an Alessi manual prober, HP4155 parameter analyzer, and HP4284 LCR meter which are GPIB networked to PC's. BSIMPro software is used to drive the equipment, take data, and extract SPICE model parameters for deep-sub-micron MOSFET's and BJT's. Probes are triax-connected and EMI shielded for low-noise measurements. Measured electrical characteristics are used to study device physics and to develop accurate mathematical models for the device behavior. In 1999, a new Cascade Summit Microwave wafer probe station and an HP85122A RF Device Modeling system were added to this lab, for performing on-wafer, S-parameter analysis of high-performance devices up to 20GHz. This equipment is interfaced to an HPUX workstation running IC-CAP device modeling software. This new equipment was obtained as a part of a $2 million Hewlett-Packard Equipment Grant that was awarded to BSU's College of Engineering in 1998. In May 1999, Teradyne donated a $750,000 J995 Automated VLSI Test System to this laboratory for full IC test vector/pattern generation.
The new Idaho Microfabrication Lab was completed in Fall 1998. It is located in the existing Engineering Technology Building. It contains a gowning room, a 900 ft2 Class1000 process room, and a 400 ft2 mechanical support room & technician workshop. The appendix drawing shows the lab layout and placement of processing tools. The lab supports wet wafer cleaning & etching, photoresist coating & developing, baking, g-line exposure, plasma ashing, sputtering, ellipsometry, resistivity measurement, and optical and scanning electron microscopy. The new lab utilities include temperature-controlled, HEPA-filtered air, fume exhaust, compressed air (CDA), process vacuum, cooling water, DI water, 120/208V 3-phase power, and wastewater pH neutralization pre-treatment. Oxygen, nitrogen, and argon are connected to tools in a simple point-of-use arrangement. Currently, no CVD or plasma etch capability exists, so no other dangerous gases are used in the lab. The donated 150mm equipment includes: SVG photoresist coat & develop tracks, a GCA 8000 wafer stepper, an AMRAY scanning electron microscope, a CRC sputtering system, a YES vapor prime oven, an SCP wet sink and IPA vapor jet dryer, several Nikon microscopes, TMC air tables, HEPA filter units, Blue-M ovens, and Alessi wafer probing stations. The value of this donated equipment is estimated at $2 million. The initial design of the Cleanroom facility to house this equipment was completed in July 1997 by University Physical Plant Engineer, Jeff Kelly. Mr. Kelly worked with BSU professors Stephen Parke and Bob Dodson, as well as a group of local industry process engineers who have volunteered their time to make this lab a reality. In Dec. 1997, BSU acquired the services of Ackerman/Practicon Engineering and Leatham & Krohn Architects to complete the design details and oversee the construction. Ackerman/Practicon has had extensive experience in the design & construction of cleanroom projects both locally and nationally. State and local approvals were obtained and the project was bid in March 1998, with Guho Construction becoming the general contractor. Construction began immediately and proceeded on an aggressive schedule with completion achieved in August 1998 at a cost of less than $250,000. The donated processing equipment installation was then initiated by BSU faculty, technicians, and the industry volunteer group and is still in progress. The first group of students used the lab for Fall 1998 classes. The new Cleanroom was dedicated and the contributors honored in a ceremony attended by over 100 supporters on September 22, 1998.
The curriculum was developed by researching various universities who are recognized for undergraduate microelectronics education. Two BSEE microelectronics specializations are offered at BSU: 1) Integrated Circuits & Semiconductor Devices and 2) Semiconductor Processing.
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Integrated Circuits & Semiconductor Devices |
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Semiconductor Devices |
Intro to Microelectronics |
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Device Characterization Lab |
Intro to IC Processing |
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Adv. CMOS Device Design |
Intro to IC Processing Lab |
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Adv. Device Characterization Lab |
Intro to IC Physical Design |
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Microelectronic Circuit Design |
VLSI Design |
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Semiconductor Processing |
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Advanced Chemistry |
Intro to Microelectronics |
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Microelectronic Materials |
DOE and Statistical Process Control |
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Intro to IC Processing |
Intro to IC Processing Lab |
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Photolithography |
Photolithography Lab |
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Adv. IC Processing |
Adv. IC Processing Lab |
BSU's College of Engineering has been increasingly involved in "distance" modes of course delivery over the past two years. Courses are currently being delivered via the microwave-based Knowledge Network to sites that are line-of-sight from the Bogus Basin transmitter. In addition, courses are being delivered via compressed video (video conferencing), videotape, and the Internet. For BSU's microwave delivery system, the Knowledge Network, lectures are held in a state-of-the-art studio classroom in the Simplot-Micron Instructional Technology Center and delivered live to students at their place of employment via one-way video and interactive two-way audio. These courses are also rebroadcast on both WBS and TCI cable TV stations and students can elect to tape and view the lectures at home. Registration of these off-campus students is coordinated by BSU's Continuing Education office. Fall 1999 will be the fifth consecutive semester that the BSU Engineering has offered these type courses. In addition to Boise-area companies, BSU can now deliver engineering courses to several other western US universities and industry sites via the new Western Virtual Engineering Consortium (WestVEC) network. http://www.ee.uidaho.edu/westvec/ This network of eight western US university engineering programs shares courses with each other and with industry via videotape and the Internet. In Fall 1998, BSU Engineering delivered three courses to over 20 students at both U of Idaho, Moscow and American Microsystems, Inc. (AMI) in Pocatello, ID via the WestVEC network.
Several research grant proposals have been submitted and are under review. These involve: Compact RF MOSFET Modeling for Bulk/SOI, Ultra-low-power RF-CMOS technology for spread-spectrum, wireless personal communicators, 3-D Microstructures, Environmentally-friendly CO2 wafer cleaning, Ferromagnetic & Ferroelectric film reliability, E-beam & X-ray Lithography, and Porous Silicon Optoelectronic devices. Grants recently awarded include: $200,000 NSF CAREER "Fundamental Electrical and Thermal Limitations of Patterned Thin Film Multilayer Magnetic Field Sensors" , $200,000 NSF "Research Experience for Undergraduates in Microelectronics at BSU" , $500,000 NSF EPSCoR "Development of a Low-Power, RF Integrated Circuit R&D Infrastructure in Idaho" , $125,000 NSF EPSCoR Equipment Grant "LEO Scanning Electron Microscope with Nanometer Patterning Capability".
BSU's five-year plan supports growth of the AAS and BS programs to over 200 students each, as well as the initiation of a graduate research program in microelectronics. This will require physical expansion of the existing facility. The first stage will be to double the size of the current cleanroom to the adjacent room within the next two years. A modular approach to tool acquisition will include oxidation/thermal processing, plasma deposition & etch, PVD, and CMP. Ultimately, a new stand-alone Integrated Circuit Fabrication Laboratory building will be constructed. It is anticipated that the processing equipment required for this lab will be available through continuing industry donations as well as used equipment purchases. However, the facility to house this equipment in is quite expensive to construct and maintain. The BSU College of Engineering and the College of Applied Technology have proposed constructing and sharing a teaching/research-capable cleanroom lab as a stand-alone building in the new Engineering & Technology "campus". To construct and support this new lab, the establishment of an ongoing, national-level corporate endowment campaign is planned. In addition, it is planned to seek state funding for the lab as a state university research center, available to graduate students and faculty from all state institutions. It is estimated that this lab should be approximately 15,000ft2. It will house a complete CMOS process tool set, possibly for 200mm wafers, all in a layout that facilitates interactive teaching as well as research. With glassed observation hallways around three sides of the cleanroom, it will be a showcase for prospective students, faculty, researchers, and companies considering locating in Idaho.
[1] S. Parke, S. Duttagupta, S. Burkett, N. Rafla, "A New Microelectronics Program at Boise State University…" Proceedings of Twelfth Biennial UGIM Symposium, pp. 40-42, 1997.
[2] L. Savage, "Universities offer hands-on training," Solid-State Technology, pp. 57-61, April 1997.
[3] B. Santo, "Universities offer undergraduate semiconductor degrees," EE Times, October 1997.
[4] S. Levy, "The Hot New Tech Cities," Newsweek, pp. 45-56, Nov. 9, 1998.
