Microfabrication practicals

MICRO-332 / 2 credits

Teacher(s): Brugger Jürgen, Sayah Abdeljalil

Language: English

Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Summary

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the practical aspects of some basic micro-fabrication techniques.

Content

This course is reserved for students registered in the Bachelor of Micro-engineering.

During this practical course, different experiments in CMI cleanroom as well as research laboratories are conducted by students under guidance from experience scientists/engineers to get familiar with the basic techniques in microfabrication as seen in the Micro-331 MOOC and course. Through these experiments, students get the opportunity to hands-on some basic experiments associated with IC or MEMS fabrication. The main topics include:

Introduction to the general cleanroom techniques and safety training
Use of CAD tools to design a simple mask layout
Photolithography techniques to pattern positive and negative tone resists
Wet Etching of aluminium thin film
Lift-off process
Alignment of two photomask levels
Fabrication of a simple resistor component in aluminium thin film
Inspection and metrology: optical microscopy, four-point probe method, mechanical stylus-based step profiler (Tencor alpha-step), optical thickness measurement (Filmetrics), contact angle measurement

Keywords

photoresist, photolithography, lift-off, wet etching, photomask, sheet resistance, under etching, mask alignment, contact angle, film thickness, adhesion, run card, process flow, cleanroom, spin-coating, UV-exposure

Learning Prerequisites

Recommended courses

Micro-331

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

Produce a run card
Conduct experiments of photolithography and etching
Sketch a process flow
Interpret experimental data from measurements
Coordinate tasks within a group
Justify the need of cleanroom environment for micro- and nano-fabrications

Transversal skills

Write a scientific or technical report.
Evaluate one's own performance in the team, receive and respond appropriately to feedback.
Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.

Teaching methods

Practical laboratory work in groups (4 students/group)

Series of experiments: some experiments will be done in CMI cleanroom, others in BM research laboratory and DLL

Lecture on introduction of cleanroom and some basic micofabrication methods related to the TP

Expected student activities

Conduct experiments
Use a lab notebook
Explore lab facilities

Operate advanced equipments

Assessment methods

Individual: Class attendance, participation to all experiments, execution of specific work

Group: quality of scientific/technical report writing by the group related to each experiment.

Supervision

Office hours	No
Assistants	Yes
Forum	Yes

Resources

Moodle Link

https://go.epfl.ch/MICRO-332

In the programs

Semester: Fall
Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
Subject examined: Microfabrication practicals
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
Type: mandatory

Semester: Fall
Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
Subject examined: Microfabrication practicals
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
TP: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
Type: mandatory

Reference week

Légendes:

Lecture

Exercise, TP

Project, Lab, other

Related courses

Results from graphsearch.epfl.ch.

	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr
8-9	GRA332 MED31119				MED31119
9-10	GRA332 MED31119				MED31119
10-11	GRA332 MED31119
11-12	GRA332 MED31119
12-13	GRA332 MED31119
13-14	GRA332 MED31119
14-15	GRA332 MED31119
15-16	GRA332 MED31119
16-17	GRA332 MED31119
17-18	GRA332 MED31119
18-19	GRA332 MED31119
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