Introducing The Small World: Developing The Mems/Nanotechnology Curriculum

© ASEE 2009MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) and nanotechnology are believed to be the exciting drive to trigger the next wave of technology revolution. MEMS refer to systems in micro scale (1 micron to 1 millimeter) that integrates mechanical components, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through micromachining technology. Due to its low cost, small size, light weight and high resolution, MEMS has been widely used in automobiles, medical health care, aerospace, consumer products and RF communications. Nanotechnology refers to a field of applied science and technology about materials and devices in the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometers. It can offer better built, longer lasting, cleanser, safer and smarter products for home, communications, medicine, transportation, agriculture and many other fields. MEMS and nanotechnology can be combined to create a new exciting field of NEMS (Nanoelectromechanical system). In order to introduce engineering students into this amazing micro and nanotechnology field, we developed three corresponding graduate-level courses: Introduction to MEMS (EE446) and Introduction to Nanotechnology (EE451), and Microelectronic Fabrication (EE448). In addition, we have other related courses to support this program, such as EE 447: Semiconductor, EE 404: CMOS VLSI, EE 410: Bio-sensors, etc. This paper will discuss the course structure, syllabuses, course modules, student feedbacks, as well as future plans for this program. This curriculum offer students comprehensive knowledge and experience in MEMS and nanotechnology. Students use various CAD tools such as ANSYS FEM to design and simulate various MEMS/NEMS devices in the course projects. Multimedia technology is also used during the classroom teaching. We played vivid photos/videos to show the operation of MEMS/NEMS devices and state-of-the-art micro/nano fabrication processes in industry. Students demonstrated tremendous interest in this micro/nanotechnology program. The enrollment to these courses has been overwhelming and we have to create extra sessions to accommodate students with strong interest in this program. Our graduated students are well prepared for the industry in micro/nanotechnology fields. This program can also be helpful for the effort of the Connecticut Nanotechnology Curriculum Committee

Microelectronic engineering education for emerging frontiers

With the support provided by the National Science Foundation and RIT Provost’s vision for providing flexible curricula, the department of Microelectronic Engineering has instituted new and enhanced program initiatives – (1) offering a semiconductor processing minor for other science and engineering programs promoting access to state-of-the art semiconductor fabrication facilities to students from other programs; (2) crafting a five course elective sequence within the existing curriculum by eliminating legacy material and course consolidation; (3) developing a concentration program in nanotechnology and MEMS; (4) outreach programs for targeting larger and diverse participation in preparing workforce for the nation’s future high tech industry; (5) enhance student learning through co-op and service. The mission is to generate multi faceted work force for the future semiconductor technologies and emerging frontiers spinning off from microelectronics, while simultaneously promoting enrollment particularly from women and minority students

Teaching MEMS Curriculum in Electrical Engineering Graduate Program

© ASEE 2010Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) refer to devices and systems in the size range of 1 micron (1 micron=10-6m) to 1000 microns. Due to their small size, MEMS technology has the advantages of low weight, low cost, low power consumption and high resolution. MEMS have found broad applications in automobile, inertial navigation, light display, optical and RF communications, biomedicine, etc. World’s MEMS market is growing rapidly each year. To meet the strong market demands on MEMS engineers and researchers, we developed MEMS curriculum in our master program in School of Engineering since Fall 2005. In this paper, we shared our experience in teaching the MEMS curriculum in master program of Electrical Engineering department. Three core courses have been developed for MEMS curriculum. The course description, goals, prerequisites, as well as the topics covered in these courses are discussed. Multimedia technology is used in the teaching to enhance the teaching results. Several MEMS course projects using ANSYS simulation are designed to help student accumulate experience in MEMS device design and simulation. Students are fascinated by the MEMS field and continue their master project/thesis research in MEMS. The MEMS curriculum attracted tremendous interest among students, and the students’ feedback on the course have been excellent. This is part of our efforts to prepare students for the future need of economy revival

Center for Applied Radiation Research (CARR)

Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) Center for Applied Radiation Research (CARR) was established in 1995 to address the tasks, missions and technological needs of NASA. CARR is built on a tradition of radiation research at Prairie View A&M started in 1984 with NASA funding. This continuing program has lead to: (1) A more fundamental and practical understanding of radiation effects on electronics and materials; (2) A dialog between space, military and commercial electronics manufacturers; (3) Innovative electronic circuit designs; (4) Development of state-of-the-art research facilities at PVAMU; (5) Expanded faculty and staff to mentor student research; and (6) Most importantly, increased flow in the pipeline leading to expanded participation of African-Americans and other minorities in science and technological fields of interest to NASA

DOC 2014-09 Proposal for MS in Computer Engineering (MSCPE)

Legislative authorit

Course development in IC manufacturing

A traditional curriculum in electrical engineering separates semiconductor processing courses from courses in circuit design. As a result, manufacturing topics involving yield management and the study of random process variations impacting circuit behaviour are usually vaguely treated. The subject matter of this paper is to report a course developed at Texas A&M University, USA, to compensate for the aforementioned shortcoming. This course attempts to link technological process and circuit design domains by emphasizing aspects such as process disturbance modeling, yield modeling, and defect-induced fault modeling. In a rapidly changing environment where high-end technologies are evolving towards submicron features and towards high transistor integration, these aspects are key factors to design for manufacturability. The paper presents the course's syllabus, a description of its main topics, and results on selected project assignments carried out during a normal academic semeste

Multidisciplinary Approaches and Challenges in Integrating Emerging Medical Devices Security Research and Education

Traditional embedded systems such as secure smart cards and nano-sensor networks have been utilized in various usage models. Nevertheless, emerging secure deeply-embedded systems, e.g., implantable and wearable medical devices, have comparably larger “attack surface”. Specifically, with respect to medical devices, a security breach can be life-threatening (for which adopting traditional solutions might not be practical due to tight constraints of these often-battery-powered systems), and unlike traditional embedded systems, it is not only a matter of financial loss. Unfortunately, although emerging cryptographic engineering research mechanisms for such deeply-embedded systems have started solving this critical, vital problem, university education (at both graduate and undergraduate level) lags comparably. One of the pivotal reasons for such a lag is the multi-disciplinary nature of the emerging security bottlenecks. Based on the aforementioned motivation, in this work, at Rochester Institute of Technology, we present an effective research and education integration strategy to overcome this issue in one of the most critical deeply-embedded systems, i.e., medical devices. Moreover, we present the results of two years of implementation of the presented strategy at graduate-level through fault analysis attacks, a variant of side-channel attacks. We note that the authors also supervise an undergraduate student and the outcome of the presented work has been assessed for that student as well; however, the emphasis is on graduate-level integration. The results of the presented work show the success of the presented methodology while pinpointing the challenges encountered compared to traditional embedded system security research/teaching integration of medical devices security. We would like to emphasize that our integration approaches are general and scalable to other critical infrastructures as well