Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Course Expectations
Class Meetings
The class meets twice a week for 1.5 hours a session. In-class activities will include both lecture and discussion on specific topics. There is no required text for the course; handouts will include excerpts from literature papers and appropriate references. Recommended texts will be noted.
Problem Sets
Students will be expected to complete the assigned problem sets on the related lecture material. These are essential to building familiarity with the methods and techniques of semiconductor manufacturing. These are due at the beginning of class, usually on Wednesday.
Quizzes
Two quizzes are planned, to be held in class during the regularly scheduled class time. They are scheduled for Wednesday, after lecture #9 and Wednesday, after lecture #19. No final exam is scheduled.
Critical Paper Review
To encourage the ability to read - carefully and with a critical eye - the technical literature in semiconductor manufacturing, each student will be asked to write a critical review on one paper of interest to the student, from a selection of recent technical journal issues.
Final Project
A final project in the last four weeks of the term will be undertaken rather than a final exam. Projects will be proposed by students, and should emphasize the collection (e.g. via the literature or other means) and analysis of manufacturing data (which may be equipment, factory, or operational in nature). Projects where the methods and techniques from the course are applied are of key interest. The final project will include (1) submission of a short project definition (one page maximum); (2) preparation of a final written report in a technical paper format; these reports will be compiled and issued to the class as a take-home artifact from the course; and (3) an oral presentation by each student.
Policy on Team Work and Collaboration
Team learning and problem solving are encouraged. However, it is important, particularly on the problem sets, that each student fully understand the material and complete their own write up of solutions to be handed in. Collaboration on the quiz is not allowed. Team projects of a substantial nature will be considered.
Acknowledgements and Inspirations
EE290H - Costas Spanos and Kameshwar Poolla
Important sections of this course, particularly elements on statistical background, statistical process control charts, and experimental design methods are drawn from material developed by Prof. Costas Spanos in his course EE290H “Special Topics in Semiconductor Manufacturing,” at UC Berkeley. The development of that course serves as inspiration and a shining example, in addition to the source for specific lecture material, for this course at MIT.
Many of the statistical and control charting figures in both the MIT and Berkeley courses are drawn from the reference Intro to Statistical Quality Control, D. C. Montgomery, Wiley, 1985.
MIT Leaders for Manufacturing
The LFM Research Program, including RG4 - Variation Reduction, RG5 - Manufacturing Systems, and the LFM/SIMA Remote Monitoring and Diagnosis Project are key research resources that helped drive development of this course. Case materials from LFM internship projects are also utilized in this course. The contribution of curriculum development funds in 1997 by LFM is gratefully acknowledged.
NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center on Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing
Material on the environmental and factory issues in semiconductor manufacturing draw on course development work at the University of Arizona, in collaboration with research partners at MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, in the NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center on Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing. In particular, a course under the leadership of Tom Peterson at the Univ. of Ariz. is an important interaction with this course.
