Electronics

Classes

ELT 220: Material, Safety, and Equipment Overview for Nanofabrication

Class Program
Credits 3

This course provides an overview of the materials, safety and equipment issues encountered in the practice of "top down" and "bottom up" nanofabrication. It focuses on safety, environmental and health issues in equipment operation and materials handling as well as on clean-room protocol. Topics to be covered include: clean-room operation, OSHA lab standard safety training, health issues, Biosafety Levels (BSL) guidelines, and environmental concerns. Safety issues dealing with nanofabrication equipment, materials, and processing will also be discussed including those pertinent to biological materials, wet benches, thermal processing tools, plasma based equipment, stamping and embossing lithography tools, vacuum systems and pumps, gas delivery systems and toxic substance handling and detection. Specific material handling procedures to be discussed will include corrosive, flammable, and toxic materials, biological materials, carcinogenic materials, DI water, solvents, cleaners, photo resists, developers, metals, acids, and bases. The course will also concentrate on safe equipment maintenance and operation. Students will be given an overview of basic nanofabrication materials, equipment and equipment operation. This technical overview and operational introduction to processing equipment and characterization tools will include: chemical processing, furnaces, vacuum based processing (physical vapor deposition equipment, chemical vapor deposition equipment, and dry etching equipment), and lithography as well as scanning probe microscopy (e.g., atomic force microscopy), optical microscope, electron microscopy (e.g., scanning electron microscopy), ellipsometer, nanospec, and profilometer equipment.
 

Notes
Course offered on the Penn State University Campus in partnership with the Penn State University Nanotechnology Program.

ELT 221: Basic Nanofabrication Processes

Class Program
Credits 3

This course is the hands-on introduction to the processing involved in "top down", "bottom up", and hybrid nanofabrication. The majority of the course details a step-by-step description of the equipment, facilities processes and process flow needed to fabricate devices and structures. Students learn to appreciate processing and manufacturing concerns including process control, contamination, yield, and processing interaction. The students design process flows for micro- and nano-scale systems. Students learn the similarities and differences in "top down" and "bottom up" equipment and process flows by undertaking hands-on processing. This hands-on exposure covers basic nanofabrication processes including colloidal chemistry, self-assembly, catalyzed nanoparticle growth, lithography, wet and dry etching, physical vapor deposition, and chemical vapor deposition.
 

Notes
Course offered on the Penn State University Campus in partnership with the Penn State University Nanotechnology Program.

ELT 222: Materials in Nanotechnology

Class Program
Credits 3

This course is an in-depth, hands-on exposure to materials fabrication approaches used in nanofabrication. Students learn that these processes can be guided by chemical or physical means or by some combination of these. Hands-on exposure will include self-assembly; colloidal chemistry; atmosphere, low-pressure and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition; sputtering; thermal and electron beam evaporation; nebulization and spin-on techniques. This course is designed to give students hands-on experience in depositing, fabricating and self-assembling a wide variety of materials tailored for their mechanical, electrical, optical, magnetic, and biological properties.
 

Notes
Course offered on the Penn State University Campus in partnership with the Penn State University Nanotechnology Program.

ELT 223: Lithography for Nanofabrication

Class Program
Credits 3

This course is a hands-on treatment of all aspects of advanced pattern transfer and pattern transfer equipment including probe techniques; stamping and embossing; e-beam; and optical contact and stepper systems. The course is divided into five major sections. The first section is an overview of all pattern generation processes covering aspects from substrate preparation to tool operation. The second section concentrates on photolithography and examines such topics as mask template, and mold generation. Chemical makeup of resists will be discussed including polymers, solvents, sensitizers, and additives. The role or dyes and antireflective coatings will be discussed. In addition, critical dimension (CD) control and profile control of resists will be investigated. The third section will discuss the particle beam lithographic techniques such as e-beam lithography. The fourth section covers probe pattern generation and the fifth section explores embossing lithography, step-and-flash, stamp lithography, and self-assembled lithography.
 

Notes
Course offered on the Penn State University Campus in partnership with the Penn State University Nanotechnology Program.

ELT 224: Materials Modification in Nanofabrication

Class Program
Credits 3

This course will cover in detail the processing techniques and specialty hardware used in modifying properties in nanofabrication. Material modification steps to be covered will include etching, functionalization, alloying, stress control and doping. Avoiding unintentional materials modification will also be covered including such topics as use of diffusion barriers, encapsulation, electromigration control, corrosion control, wettability, stress control, and adhesion. Hands-on materials modification and subsequent characterization will be undertaken.
 

Notes
Course offered on the Penn State University Campus in partnership with the Penn State University Nanotechnology Program.

ELT 225: Characterization, Testing of Nanofabricated Structures and Materials

Class Program
Credits 3

This course examines a variety of techniques and measurements essential for testing and for controlling material fabrication and final device performance. Characterization includes electrical, optical, physical, and chemical approaches. The characterization experience will include hands-on use of tools such as the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), fluorescence microscopes, and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
 

Notes
Course offered on the Penn State University Campus in partnership with the Penn State University Nanotechnology Program.