Making at the Nanometer Scale: A Journey into Microchips

Catalog description

Have you ever wondered what is inside your phone and your computer? What makes AI and large language model (LLM) possible? What physical events happen in between the time you press the 'search' button and the information shows up on the screen? In this course, we start with the classic paper by Richard Feynman, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," which laid down a challenge to the nanotechnologists. Today's microchips are nanotechnology in action. Transistors are nanometer scale. We will introduce students to the tools of nanotechnologists and the basic elements of nanoscale science and engineering such as nanotubes, nanowires, nanoparticles, and self-assembly. We will visit nanotechnology laboratories to consolidate our learning, go into the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF), and do a four-week project on nanofabrication. Hands-on laboratory work will be introduced (e.g., lithography, seeing things at the nanoscale using electron microscopes). We will learn how to build transistors from scratch and test them.