Community college students explore semiconductor chip fabrication
This summer, 30 area community college students joined associate professor Igor Paprotny and doctoral student John Sabino at UIC’s Nanofabrication Core Facility cleanroom to gain hands-on experience manufacturing semiconductor devices.
The summer Semiconductor Fabrication Training Program was offered through the newly established Illinois Semiconductor Workforce Network, with Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the lead institution and UIC as subcontractor at Chicago’s cleanroom location. Both schools hosted students selected for the program for semiconductor manufacturing training and industry and faculty mentoring.
The program was established to grow the talent pipeline of undergraduate-level engineering students trained in industry-standard hardware and software. Projected growth of domestic semiconductor manufacturing will require this skilled workforce, and the U.S. Commerce Department is supporting efforts across a dozen states to help train the next generation of workers for the industry.
The push to expand semiconductor manufacturing in the United States began with the 2022 passage of the CHIPS and Science Act by Congress, which aims to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., in an effort to strengthen domestic industries, bolster the national supply chains and protect national and economic security. The Illinois Semiconductor Workforce Network is part of the U.S. National Semiconductor Technology Center, a public-private consortium dedicated to advancing U.S.-led innovation, economic competitiveness, and national security.
The Semiconductor Fabrication Training Program includes an introduction to microelectronics, semiconductor devices, vacuum technology, chemical safety in a cleanroom and frontiers of semiconductor manufacturing technology.
“The program provides a unique opportunity for students to train hands-on in skills of manufacturing semiconductor devices in a cleanroom environment, a skill that will be an asset for students who decide to pursue careers or become researchers in this rapidly evolving field,” Paprotny said.
Maxx Bierwirth, a sophomore at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago, was one of the participants.
“I was interested in this program because it would provide me an opportunity to involve myself in a real lab setting with incredibly smart professors and peers,” Bierwirth said. “It’s rare to find such unique opportunities like this, especially in the semiconductor field, which is heavily underrepresented.”
His favorite part of the program was the accessibility of Paprotny and Sabino to the participants, who answered his many questions and shared their knowledge freely with the group.
After graduating from Wilbur Wright College, Bierwirth intends to transfer to a university with a strong electrical engineering program and eventually earn a PhD. He hopes to work in research and development in spatial computing hardware, including virtual and mixed reality headsets and augmented reality glasses.
“This program showed me that I want to work in R&D. I fell in love with the lab setting, and I hope I get to do more like this in my future,” Bierwirth said.
— Andrea Poet, UIC College of Engineering
