Continuing Education in Electronic Materials Science--One Approach

A basic understanding of the preparation and properties of electronic materials has become vitally important to a growing number of practicing electrical and electronics engineers. Any university that seeks to meet the needs of practitioners in those areas must make electronic materials science a significant part of its continuing education program. The continuing education program at the Institute of Technology of Southern Methodist University consists of more than sixty graduate engineering courses offered each semester to industrial plants within a 60-mile radius of Dallas via a closed-circuit talkback-equipped television network. This paper describes a one-semester televised course in semiconductor materials technology, which emphasizes the preparation, purification, crystal growth, characterization, and processing of materials commonly encountered in semiconductor electronics. The main objective of this course is to provide the practicing engineer in the semiconductor industry and the beginning graduate student in electronic sciences with a sound knowledge of the scientific principles underlying materials technology.