A free online course, titled "Semiconductor Fabrication 101," has been developed by Purdue University, the University of Texas at Austin, Intel Corp., and several global partners in the field. This self-paced course is suitable for both students and professionals, offering a basic understanding of semiconductor fabrication. It takes approximately three to five hours to complete and covers industry-standard semiconductor fabrication processes. Upon completion of the course, participants receive a certificate jointly issued by Purdue, the University of Texas at Austin, and Intel.
The course aims to educate anyone interested in semiconductor fabrication, offering lectures by experts from academia and industry that are designed to be comprehensive and easily understandable. The course was funded by Intel and developed by Muhammad Hussain, a professor at Purdue’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Xiuling Li, Temple Foundation Endowed Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Other experts from institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, ASML, and Tokyo Electron Ltd. contributed to the curriculum.
The course offers video tutorials of actual equipment and process technologies, as well as hands-on experience using vFabLab, a semiconductor fabrication virtual reality simulation created by Hussain. Accessible from any computer or mobile device, vFabLab simulates a modern cleanroom environment and guides users through the processes involved in fabricating semiconductor devices.
Topics covered in Semiconductor Fabrication 101 include semiconductor device basics, the semiconductor ecosystem, chip design, oxidation, thermal diffusion and ion implantation, wet and reactive ion etching, lithography, thin film deposition, chemical mechanical polishing and interconnects, and advanced packaging.
The development of Semiconductor Fabrication 101 aligns with Purdue’s Semiconductor Degrees Program, which focuses on building a trained workforce for the rapid expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.
The course contributors include luminaries such as Chenming Hu from the University of California, Berkeley, Sanjay Banerjee from the University of Texas at Austin, Subhasish Mitra from Stanford University, Suman Datta from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Madhavan Swaminathan from Pennsylvania State University, Tahir Ghani from Intel, and experts from ASML and Tokyo Electron Ltd.
