Plasma etching and plasma physics experiments for the undergraduatemicroelectronics course

Many universities offer lecture/laboratory courses on the processing of microelectronic circuits; these courses are designed to introduce electrical or chemical engineering students to the fundamentals of integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. Given the nearly universal adoption of plasma processing by the IC industry, experiments with plasmas are a necessary addition to this type of course. In this paper, a modified microelectronics laboratory sequence is described which incorporates two new experiments. In the first experiment, students study the fundamental nature of plasmas used for materials processing. This is followed by a second experiment designed to investigate the effects of plasma reactor parameters on the resulting etch. These experiments can be performed on minimally modified industrial-type plasma etching reactors. The experiments described may be easily implemented at universities with a microelectronics fabrication program or course, and may also be applicable for training in an industrial setting. The goal of these two experiments is to give the student preparing for employment in an IC fabrication environment broad exposure to the fundamental physics of low-pressure plasmas, in addition to some knowledge of the impact of reactor settings on the quality of the resulting etch     

Java applets for microelectronics education

This work describes a library of online courseware utilizing Java applets developed for microelectronics education. The objective is to provide an online learning environment that supplements resident instruction. Java applets are utilized to interactively demonstrate principles, provide design tools, and allow students to test their knowledge via online quizzes. The course material and Java applets are included on the CD-ROM     

A microprocessor course: designing and implementing personal microcomputers

This paper describes a microprocessor course for electrical and computer engineering students in which every student designs and implements his/her own microcomputer system step by step according to the course schedule. Although this microprocessor course requires considerable time and effort, it provides students with invaluable experience and helps them to understand microprocessors much more thoroughly. The schedule of this course and its assignments, aimed at designing and implementing personal microcomputers, is described in detail. The results of student evaluations of this course are also described.     

Teaching data structures using competitive games

A motivated student is more likely to be a successful learner. Interesting assignments encourage student learning by actively engaging them in the material. Active student learning is especially important in an introductory data structures course where students learn the fundamentals of programming. In this paper, the author describes a project for a data structures course based on the idea of competitive programming. Competitive programming motivates student learning by allowing students to evaluate and improve their programs throughout an assignment by competing their code against instructor-defined code and the code of other students in a tournament environment. Pedagogical results indicate that the combination of game development and friendly student competition is a significant motivator for increased student performance.     

Concept maps for engineering education: a cognitively motivatedtool supporting varied assessment functions

Assessment in the context of education is the process of characterizing what a student knows. The reasons to perform assessment are quite varied, ranging from a need to informally understand student learning progress in a course to a need to characterize student expertise in a subject. Finding an appropriate assessment tool is a central challenge in designing an assessment approach. The focus of this paper is on the use of concept maps for both course-level and program-level assessment in engineering education. Concept maps, which are node and arc representations of the relationships among concepts, provide one means to represent student knowledge. This paper presents background on concept maps and describes uses of concept maps at both the course and program level     

A Semiconductor Technology Course

A one-year semiconductor technology course for undergraduate senior electrical engineering students is described. The course consists of one semester of lecture followed by one semester of laboratory. The material covered in the lecture is demonstrated to the students by field trips to local industry and in their laboratory. Highly sophisticated technology such as ion-implantation is demonstrated in field trips and technology such as thermal diffusion is encountered by the student in his laboratory course. "Thus, whenever possible, the student can relate his lecture material to observation. The laboratory consists of a complete processing operation where the student starts with a crystal boule and fabricates a packaged device whose terminal characteristics are measured. He or she thus obtains some feeling for the effects of processing on terminal characteristics. Projects are used in conjunction with the laboratory to improve some of the process steps and to give the student some experience in tackling nonstructured problems which are more closely related to professional activities after graduation.     

Teaching telecommunications to electronics technical engineers: an integral course on telecommunication systems

This paper describes the rationale and the content of a two-semester four-hour-per-week course titled Telecommunication Systems. The course covers telecommunications in an overall manner, avoiding the segmentation of the telecommunications subject and introducing the student to the theoretical and engineering aspects of telecommunications in the shortest time possible. The course consists of six consecutive modules (basics, signals and systems, transmission techniques, telecommunication links, networks and services, and market issues). Besides offering background telecommunication knowledge and providing the student with a clear and well-structured overview of the overall telecommunications subject, it aims at introducing the student to the basic methodology for treating practical engineering problems.     

Instructional objectives and bench examinations in circuitslaboratories

For a three-course sequence of required circuits laboratories, the author has written detailed instructional objectives. These behaviorally observable goals focus student learning on the educational objectives selected by the course supervisor. They summarize the concepts, relationships, and measurement skills presented in the course. During a bench final examination, the student randomly selects one or more of these instructional objectives and demonstrates mastery to the teaching assistant. This encourages the student to master all instructional objectives in order to succeed in the course     

变电站自动化系统的应用体会和探讨

变电站自动化系统随着微电子技术、计算机和通信技术的发展而不断完善和提高。回顾了变电站自动化系统的发展历程．介绍了当前变电站自动化系统的应用现状。结合近几年的工程实践和对变电站自动化技术应用的体会．分析并指出了变电站自动化系统在站内智能设备接口通信、通信可靠性、信息记录和处理、调试及验收规范、设备定期校验和运行维护管理等方面存在的一些问题。依据电网运行和管理的要求对变电站自动化系统的功能提出了新的要求。     

Design Techniques for Generative Computer-Assisted Instructional Systems

This paper describes a CAI system being used in an introductory computer science course. The system is generative in the sense that it generates its own problems, derives its own solutions, monitors student solutions, and generates remedial statements. Due to its generative nature, the system provides a great deal of individualization of instruction. It selects the path taken by each student through the course concepts on an individual basis as a function of its prior experience with the student. It also tailors the difficulty of the problem generated, the degree of monitoring, and the amount of help provided to suit each student's past performance. This paper describes the special properties of generative CAI which make it particularly useful for problem-oriented courses. It discusses how the teaching algorithms are designed and how problems are generated. It also describes how the system algorithms can be used to analyze student responses, determine the nature of the student error, and generate pertinent remedial feedback.     

An Engineering Instrumentation Course for Upper Level Undergraduates

An upper level undergraduate course in engineering instrumentation is described. It is a capstone type of course bringing together information accumulated in previous studies. The course aims to review and summarize the basic principles acquired in various engineering courses, to integrate those principles in engineering systems, and to train the student to translate theory into practice.     

Introducing TCAD Tools in a Graduate Level Device Physics Course

The impact that project complexity, student prior academic achievement, and quality of instructional materials might have on student academic achievement was studied during a required device physics course, in which technology computer-aided design (TCAD) tools were introduced to first-year graduate students. Preliminary analysis of student performance and project complexity showed that students who attempted the most complex projects had the lowest student academic achievement, despite there being no significant differences in prior academic achievement as measured by grades in the first exam in the course. Further analysis of student achievement data from other electrical engineering courses taught in a similar open laboratory format, for which enhanced instructional materials were developed, suggest that when well-developed learning resources are easily accessible to students, project complexity has no negative impact on student academic achievement and can sometimes enhance student academic performance. Cognitive load theory was used to explain why well-developed instructional tools, such as enhanced tutorials, can help students better learn or work with complex material.      

An Adaptive Graduate Educational Technique

A technique for teaching a graduate level course to instill confidence, technical competence, and the ability for the student to teach himself is presented. The method consists of a special blend of lectures, student oral and written presentations, student-teacher conferences, and individually assigned homework.     

Grades, Quizzes, Motivation, and Computers

The following paper describes the use of a simple FORTRAN computer program that may be used to determine course grades. The program is based on processing a set of IBM punched data cards. Each card contains the name of a student and all of his grades, including the final examination grade. The program may also be used to predict the final examination grade, based on previous quiz grades, and then, in turn, to predict the final course grade. It is thus possible to use this program periodically throughout the entire semester in order to provide the student, as well as the instructor, with a measure of his progress.     

Rethinking the Introduction to an Engineering Course

The student consumerism movement along with rapidly changing professional demands and opportunities are forces which will require engineering departments or colleges to inform new students more fully of their educational programs and career opportunities. The introductory engineering course is a natural place to provide such a service and yet if the current literature on engineering education and college catalogs is any gauge, this course is under-utilized and ineffectively organized. This paper discusses ECE 0100, an Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering, which is currently being offered at Wayne State University. This course incorporates the educational philosophy and assumptions advocated by humanistic psychology and shows that such an approach naturally satisfies the information requirements created by student consumerism and changing professionsal needs.     

Practicing engineering in a freshman introductory course

This paper discusses a teaching experience obtained in the undergraduate course of Control Engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. The course endeavors to introduce the students to the university and to the real world of engineering and to develop an understanding of basic engineering concepts and foster professional skills. By introducing practicing engineering to the course from day one, student motivation is increased, and the relationship between theoretical and practical aspects of engineering is demonstrated more clearly. This "hands-on approach" allows the student a greater insight into the life of an engineer. It strengthens a weakness found in established teaching methods, allowing the individual to embark on his or her engineering education with greater confidence in his or her ability as an engineer.     

An Electronic Instrumentation Design Project for Computer Engineering Students

Ongoing technological progress in electronic instrumentation triggered the development of an innovative, hands-on teaching program to help students toward a fuller understanding of recent changes in the field. This paper describes the different stages of a design project to teach electronic instrumentation to computer engineering students at the University of Oviedo, GijÓn, Spain. The project involves designing a weather station to measure the main meteorological variables and then displaying this information on a computer screen. Although this course is intended for nonspecialist students of electronics, it could easily be adapted to other syllabuses with minimum modification of the specifications. The course provides not only enhanced academic training but also increased student motivation, as students participate actively in all course activities and work in a team within which each student has specific responsibilities.     

Introductory UART Experiments for a Microcomputer Course

A course is briefly described which deals with microprocessor interfacing. One portion of the course covers programmable LSI interface chips. Introductory experiments are described for one of these chips, the Motorola 6850 asynchronous communications interface adapter (ACIA). The experiments allow the student to, in effect, "single-step" through the operation of the ACIA by inputting clock pulses asynchronously. The values of important signals, including the clock, are indicated in LED's. Thus, the student gets visual reinforcement of the ACIA's characteristics.