Developing a Nano-electronic fabrication Laboratory to enthuse Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Manifestations of the famous bathtub curve effect have shown that in the field of electronics, miniaturization makes the cost of electronic technology reduce dramatically. In the first few years, on the introduction of a new technology, it costs more than usual till when it gets into a manufacturing phase, and after that again cost goes up due to its obsolescence, whence further miniaturization has to set in. Financing is very different in the field of nano-engineering and difficult for an entrepreneur, as the financier or the funding agency wants to see what is the end product, after seeing what is going on. The lack of nano-engineering education-so called design fundamentals; knowledge of design tools and manufacturing processes is one of the major drawbacks. To add to it there is a lack of depository knowledge and infrastructure for selection of microfabrication processes and assembly. These deficiencies can be met, if during graduation from an undergraduate or a masters program, a broad based knowledge of nano-electronic fabrication technique is provided. This paper sets the limits and gives an overview of such a laboratory for a nano-technology research and infrastructure. This education can develop a technician-training program and ultimately leads to the capabilities of building proto-type pilot projects. Since upcoming initiatives are so demanding, newer systems prevent professors to form a company or participate with new entrepreneurs. One of the greatest examples is the long-standing demand of interconnections to nano-electronic components. Giving the right training and objectivity, a new generation of entrepreneurs can be enthused amongst our students. This would help our State develop fundamental research in nano-technology. Our effort of building a nano-engineering laboratory is to develop novel integrated Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor-CMOS gas sensors, SOI inertial sensors and piezoelectric tactile sensors based on piezo-resonance. The equipment proposed will be finally used for nano-interconnect technology