An economic lab design for hands-on education in microelectronics processing

Although microelectronics processing is a field that demands more and more of the nation´s engineers, few institutions are set up to provide undergraduate students with a hands-on education. Laboratories that are equipped with state-of-the-art technology are often prohibitively expensive for smaller institutions, costing $500/square foot for facilities alone. The laboratory design that is presented in this paper was implemented for roughly $32/square foot. Its design is based on the concept of a room within a room. It allows the fabrication of a 4-mask level PMOS integrated circuit using technology that educates students on the concepts with a minimum of safety hazards