The Cornell NanoScale Facility is partnering with Micron Technology — one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world — on workforce development initiatives to prepare for Micron’s upcoming semiconductor fabrication facility in Upstate New York.
Micron announced its plans to invest $100 billion in building the largest semiconductor facility in the United States on Oct. 4, 2022. The announcement came in light of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 which subsidizes and boosts the U.S. production of semiconductors. This new facility is projected to create around 50,000 jobs in the upstate New York area by 2026, requiring an enormous effort to create and educate a workforce.
“Since semiconductor fabrication facilities are proprietary, providing a hands-on learning experience to students is challenging,“ said Tom Pennell, outreach and education coordinator at CNF.
But being a user facility, CNF is uniquely accessible to students of all ages. To bridge the knowledge gaps about new technologies, CNF promotes outreach activities on campus.
“CNF is a world-class facility, housing over 180 specialized tools that provide start-to-finish processing so people can get into any aspect of semiconductor manufacturing,” said Ron Olson, director of operations at CNF.
Specialized tools can assist with semiconductor design, fabrication, testing, characterization and packaging.
Since April 2023, CNF has been organizing Chip Camps in partnership with Micron. Chip Camps are workshops that introduce middle and high school students to nanotechnology.
For the last workshop held in July 2023, around 120 students visited Duffield Hall, which was transformed into a “nano-fun” space with hands-on science demos. Led by Pennell, the demos covered a variety of areas in nanoscience ranging from topics in microfluidics, photonics and materials science.
In one demo, students performed a tabletop version of photolithography, an important step in the processing of integrated circuits that involves transferring a pattern from a photo-sensitive polymer onto a silicon wafer with ultraviolet light.
In complex semiconductor devices such as the ones in phones and laptops, the integrated circuits can go through the photolithography step as many as 50 times. In the demo, students used UV-active paper and UV lamps that are typically used for curing nail polish. The experiment is similar to printing negatives onto a film in photography.
The Chip Camps also involved a virtual tour of the high-tech equipment used in nanofabrication, which refers to making materials at very small dimensions.
CNF also launched a virtual reality tour of its facility at the New York State Fair to increase the scope of its outreach. The tour, available on the CNF website, provides an in-depth description of every tool in the facility.
“We want to form a pathway to help people get into a really exciting scientific career, and our impact on the community will hopefully grow exponentially with the CHIPS and Science Act,” Pennel said.
But Micron’s outreach effort has not been limited to middle and high school students. In a press conference last year, Micron announced the formation of the Northeast Semiconductor Network which included a list of 21 prominent universities from the area.
The proposed network aims to revamp engineering curricula for undergraduate and graduate programs by taking into consideration industry needs. Further emphasis will also be placed on providing more research opportunities and increasing experiential-based learning in cleanrooms and teaching labs.
ECE 4361: Nanofabrication and Characterization of Electronics Laboratory is already a step towards modernizing the University’s engineering curriculum. The class is primarily taught by the CNF staff in the teaching section of the cleanroom, which is a special lab space, with a sufficiently low concentration of air pollutants, required for semiconductor fabrication. Students fabricate semiconductor devices like solar cells, LEDs, transistors and capacitors using common techniques of the semiconductor industry.
“Our college leaders and faculty have been actively exploring a number of ways we can contribute to education and workforce development in the semiconductor industry, and Micron is clearly a key stakeholder,” said Prof. Kathryn Caggiano, engineering. “We are delighted that Micron has been willing to engage in discussions about potential strategies for aligning our efforts with the industry’s needs.”
Raghav Chaturvedi can be reached at [email protected].