The MIT Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing (https://microphotonics.mit.edu/) recently hosted 12 students from community colleges and four-year colleges across the Northeast for the NSF-ATE NCAIST hands-on semiconductor packaging and testing bootcamp at MIT.nano.
Over an intensive two days in the MIT LEAP (Lab for Education and Application Prototypes) at MIT.nano, students from MassBay Community College (MBCC), North Shore Community College (NSCC), Stonehill College, and SUNY Polytechnic stepped out of the classroom and directly onto the laboratory floor alongside MIT.nano staff and researchers.
The core curriculum focused on high-impact, workforce-ready skills, providing students with direct, practical experience across critical advanced semiconductor packaging infrastructure:
· Die Sawing – Substrate dicing and wafer singulation
· Die Bonding – Precision component placement and attaching die to substrates
· Wire Bonding – Establishing electrical interconnects using micro-fine wire leads
· Flip Chip Bonding – Advanced high-density packaging and face-down chip integration
By bridging physical fabrication with advanced simulation resources, these students are mastering highly specialized manufacturing, assembly, and testing pipelines required to build the future of electronic-photonic integration.
To complement these intensive physical lab sessions, the program integrates the Virtual Manufacturing (VM) Lab framework. This desktop VR simulation technology serves as an excellent foundational tool to help students (a) visualize not only photonic devices but also complex tool mechanics, (b) run digital process steps, and (c) deepen their technical understanding alongside live hardware instruction.
Thank you to the instructors, partners, and the students who put in the work at MIT.nano last week, to drive the semiconductor educational roadmap forward.
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FUTUR-IC hosts advanced semiconductor packaging bootcamp
This week Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s FUTUR-IC team had the pleasure of hosting five students from Massachusetts Bay Community College: Iciss Cato, Inas Dawoud, Gena Megelly, Orion Melanson, and Gwyneth R.-Smith.
The students were here to learn about advanced semiconductor packaging through a hands-on boot camp, which is a part of NCAIST, an NSF-ATE program (PI: Prof. Abraham Michelen SUNY-Poly, Albany; MA PI: Prof. Marina Bograd, MassBay Community College; MIT PI: Anuradha Agarwal).
Boot camp attendees were trained to operate three packaging tools in the LEAP (Lab for Education and Application Prototypes) at MIT.nano: Die Saw, Wire Bonder and Die Bonder. Hands-on training was provided by a team of staff and students from MIT’s DMSE and Materials Research Laboratory, Dr. Drew Weninger and Dr. Luigi Ranno, as well as staff from MIT.nano, Kristofor Payer, Justin Pellegrine, Benjamin Newcomb, and Cody Corey. The training was supplemented by Virtual Reality (VR) simulations of (1) photonic devices such as waveguides, bends, and escalators and (2) packaging tools such as the Die Saw and Die Bonder. To learn about resource-efficient manufacturing in the semiconductor industry, attendees also had access to a Game called “Gentronics” in which they were “owners” of a cellphone factory, during which they had to maximize profits and performance while minimizing use of resources like minerals, water, chemicals, plastics, and other materials. These VR simulations and game were created by the MIT IKIM’s (Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing) Virtual Manufacturing Lab team of Dr. Sajan Saini, Ira Fay, Trevor Morrisey, and Jaymie Krambeck.
At the end of each day, boot camp attendees reflected on their learning and engaged with instructors in discussions about electronic-photonic packaging, including conventional electronic packaging techniques, as well as novel cutting-edge electronic-photonic packaging ideas (Thank you to Dr. Drew Weninger and Dr. Luigi Ranno for sharing their PhD research).
Of course, the boot camp included a tour by Kristofor Payer of the entire MIT.nano fabrication facility, where attendees learned about several complex steps which are encountered in semiconductor manufacturing: physical and chemical vapor deposition, lithography, plasma etching, packaging, characterization, and imaging. They heard about six-sigma manufacturing from Dr. Pradnya Nagarkar, and requirements across the semiconductor supply chain to maintain vibrant industry growth, from Prof. Lionel Kimerling.
What was most refreshing was attendee enthusiasm and wonder!
Their never-ending questions were a source of inspiration for lively discussions. Thank you to all of them for sharing their time with us and thank you to the MIT team for their dedication to teach and train the next generation!