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TEMPlaTe: Technician Education Materials in Plasma-Aided Manufacturing Abstract

Normandale Community College (NCC) in Bloomington, MN, has developed technician-level, educational resources in plasma-aided manufacturing. These resources include instructional modules, laboratory exercises and demonstrations, and faculty-enhancement workshops. The instructional modules range from an introduction to plasma physics to RF power delivery to sputtering materials onto a substrate. Laboratory exercises range from low-cost transmission line experiments to capstone laboratory activities using a table-top sputtering system. Faculty-enhancement workshops include both basic and advanced workshops related to RF plasma processing and measurement.

The project, funded through a grant from the Advanced Technological Education program at the National Science Foundation (NSF # 0603175), is an extension of work performed at Portland Community College (NSF # 0101533). This project increases the robustness of the instructional modules, expands the number and scope of the laboratory exercises, and provides basic and advanced faculty- enhancement workshops for college and university faculty.

This paper provides an overview of the instructional modules, the laboratory exercises, and a brief description of the faculty workshops.

Introduction

Plasma processing is critical to the manufacture of a myriad of consumer products that enhance our quality of life. These products range from the coatings on our eyeglass lenses to the integrated circuits in our computers, cell phones, and other electronic products. Plasma processing steps include surface cleaning, deposition of materials, patterning/etching surface layers, and sputtering metals and non- metals on substrates. Plasma technology enabled manufacturers to make features smaller and smaller, now in the nanometer regime.1,2

Few community colleges currently teach this important enabling technology due to a lack of technician-level educational materials, teaching laboratories, and faculty expertise. This project, funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation, addresses these barriers to providing training in plasma-aided manufacturing for students at our nation’s community colleges. To date this project has developed eight instructional modules ranging in topics from an introduction to plasma physics, to RF power delivery, to plasma-based manufacturing processes, e.g. sputtering of metals and non-metals. In addition, the project has enabled Normandale Community College (NCC) to implement a plasma-aided manufacturing teaching laboratory. This laboratory is not only be

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Hata, D., & Dockendorf, J. (2009, June), Technician Education Materials In Plasma Technology: A Template Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4594