Thin Films in Nanofabrication - NMT 313

Catalog description

This course covers thin film deposition and etching practices in nanofabrication. The deposition techniques addressed in the first part of the course include atmospheric, low pressure, and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and sputtering, thermal evaporation, and beam evaporation physical vapor deposition. Also included are self-assembling molecule based techniques. Materials considered include organics, dielectrics (e.g., nitrides, oxides), polysilicon (doped and undoped), metals (e.g., aluminum, tungsten, copper), adhesion promoters and diffusion barriers. The second part of the course focuses on etching processes and emphasizes reactive ion etching (single wafer, batch), high-ion-density reactors, ion beam etching and wet chemical etching. Students receive hands-on experience in depositing and etching dielectric, semiconductor, and metal materials using state-of-the-art tools and experience practicing the steps critical to micro- and nanofabrication of structures used in a variety of fields from biotechnology and the biomedical fields to microelectronics. Students with a semester level of Freshman 1, Freshman 2 or Sophomore 1 may not enroll.