Mission Statement

Key Points

The original Microelectronics Laboratory at Auburn University was established in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department in 1974. Later in 1984, the Alabama Microelectronics Science and Technology Center (AMSTC) was formed, following a special legislative appropriation of $250k/year for support of microelectronics through the Auburn University Engineering Experimental Station (this has increased to roughly $300k/year currently). These funds are currently being used for graduate student support, operating expenses, laboratory facilities enhancement, and for recruiting and retaining faculty. The Center's goal is "to advance microelectronics education and technology" by providing facilities that encourage research and educational activities within the University. The AMSTC is interdisciplinary, bringing together the expertise necessary to address the multi-faceted technologies of microelectronics. The Center presently has more than 30 faculty associates from five departments:

Electrical & Computer Engineering (12 faculty)
Mechanical Engineering (6 faculty)
Physics (5 faculty)
Materials Engineering (1 faculty)
Chemistry (1 faculty)
Support Staff (4)

In addition to faculty, there are more than 45 graduate students in the microelectronics program from the various departments.
Over the past eight years the AMSTC has grown to encompass eight separate laboratory facilities. The present electrical engineering building at Auburn was occupied during the second quarter of 1984. This building houses a 4000 square feet Class - 100 clean room for semiconductor and thin film processing, 100 square feet for thick film processing and 3000 square feet for support laboratories. The facility provides equipment necessary for the design, analysis, fabrication and testing of monolithic integrated circuits, thick and thin film multichip modules and printed circuit boards. The laboratory is staffed with a full-time laboratory manager and technician, each with over ten years of industrial processing experience. In addition, full-time co-op students are employed to assist in laboratory operations. The Enhanced Heat Transfer and the Experimental and Computational Mechanics Laboratories comprise approximately 1000 and 2000 square feet respectively in Mechanical Engineering. An additional 2400 square feet of laboratory space is provided off-campus in a separated research building for the Plasma and Laser Assisted Manufacturing Laboratory, and the Solid State Sciences Laboratory occupies a new 3200 square feet clean room in the Department of Physics.

Mission Statement

¡°To advance microelectronics science, technology, and education by providing facilities which encourage interdisciplinary research and educational activities within Auburn University and the State of Alabama.¡±

Key Points