(253g) Practical Design of Experiments for the Next Generation of Semiconductor Process Engineers

Production of the latest high-value semiconductor chips will rely on development of cutting-edge tools and processes. One of the primary goals of the recent CHIPS act (Chips and Science act, 2022) is to accelerate workforce development for the semiconductor industry, as it is expected to add hundreds of thousands of jobs. Chemical engineering is a profession geared towards the manufacturing industry. The ability to decode complex chemical processes, design equipment, and implement process controls puts chemical engineers at the forefront of safety, process development, and quality control in the semiconductor industry. However, core chemical engineering curricula do not expose students to the unit operations of semiconductor manufacturing such as implantation, lithography, etching, and film growth/deposition.

At the University of Florida, both at the graduate and undergraduate level, requisite lab modules provide hands-on exposure to semiconductor unit operations and design and development of stable semiconductor processes. At the undergraduate level, these modules are included in the senior-level . For the undergraduate curriculum, the objective is to provide exposure to semiconductor processes; as such, the students follow a standard lab manual with recommended experimental conditions. At the graduate level, master’s students learn about semiconductor processing and design of experiments in a required lab course (Advanced Chemical and Bioprocessing Lab). This lab course focuses on diverse areas of chemical engineering such as semiconductor manufacturing. Identifying stable process conditions for semiconductor processing is emphasized through use of design of experiments (DOE) techniques.

The graduate-level photolithography lab module aims to provide practical exposure to real-world scenarios by letting students perform a process optimization exercise using DOE and statistical tools. In this paper, graduate students attempted to target the lithography process to a feature size of 10 micro-meters using two experimental design methods - 1. OFAT (One Factor At a Time) and 2. Factorial design.

In addition to photolithography, the lab course also includes modules on dry etching, wet etching, thermal oxide film growth, metal vapor deposition, and metal plasma sputtering.