Minor in Semi Conductor Processing

Vixenine -- The difference between semiconductor processing and most other mainstream chemical engineering is that the most significant processes occur under medium to high vacuum conditions, involve the gaseous and plasma state of the process materials and require extreme levels of purity. The process equipment used is unusual to most engineers and is quite expensive for its size. In some respects this technology is comparable to biomedical product manufacturing in its differences from common chemical processes.

Hopefully your curriculum will include the following:

1. A basic course in semiconductor manufacturing technology including CVD, Etch, PVD, CMP, photolithography, ion implant and the general operations of a semiconductor FAB (a world way different than, say, a petrochemical operation)

2. Vacuum technology (your first days in studying this subject will make you think the world of fluid mechanics just got turned upside down)

3. Plasma physics insofar as it is applicable to semiconductor processes including some study of the RF power sources that generate the plasma conditions in the process chamber.

4. Materials science heavily slanted toward inorganic chemistry, thin films and ceramics.

5. Complex computer controlled material transport and production management systems involving delicate wafer handling mechanisms.

6. An exposure to computational fluid dynamics. This new tool is at the heart of understanding what goes on in a plasma process chamber at the macroscopic level in order to assure the uniformity of process results across an entire silicon wafer.

Note that employment in a company that manufacturers semiconductors for integrated circuits will involve you in a technical culture dominated by physicists and materials scientists rather than chemists. The primary interest of these folks is in what goes on inside the process chamber. They surround themselves with birds of their own stripe as well as mechanical, electrical and, of late, safety engineers to keep the machinery running. These people usually have only the most rudimentary understanding of practical chemistry. With your chemical engineering background you will be an odd but very useful "duck". Your ability to get promoted in such a career path will depend largely on you ability to learn the details of the entire production operation and all the processes involved. There is much mechanical engineering in this. Hopefully you have some inclination toward that area.

Good luck with it. ………Ed Weldon (12 years at Applied Materials as a mechanical engineer)