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4. June 2025
Every year, Brno University of Technology seeks to inspire high-school students to pursue technical education through open days and a variety of thematic workshops. Building on this effort, CEITEC BUT has begun offering an inside look at scientific research, and for the second year now, we organise nanofabrication courses for both high-school students and their teachers.
The aim of the courses, of which CEITEC BUT plans to host at least eight for 2025, is to introduce high school students from industrial schools and grammar schools to the basic principles of professional work in cleanrooms where semiconductor components are manufactured. Dates will be announced on a rolling basis, but most of the courses aimed at third-graders are scheduled before the summer holidays [July and August in Czechia] and then before Christmas. This is because teaching tends to be more relaxed at this time, and it is also easier for teachers to organise extra-curricular activities. However, according to Jiří Zita, head of the nanostructure preparation laboratory and expert guarantor of the courses, the courses are not available for entire classes for capacity reasons. “We try to arrange with teachers to select only those students for our courses in whom they see a genuine interest in technical fields. Because for them, such events are truly meaningful and can be the missing piece that motivates them to pursue studies at a technical university,” he says.
Students experience the work of scientists in the laboratory
The one-day course is divided into a theoretical and a practical part, with the morning part being devoted to theory. During this roughly two-hour session, students and their teachers will not only learn how to behave in the labs and how the daily maintenance of these ultra-clean spaces is carried out, but also get basic information about how nanostructures are designed and learn about techniques such as lithography, metallization and etching that are used to produce semiconductors. In the practical part, students and their teachers can directly experience work in the lab, where the aim is to demonstrate work with the design and then expose the pre-prepared structure into a metallic layer. “We work in an ISO Class 5 cleanroom, which is equivalent to an operating theatre in a burn centre, and it is usually a very interesting experience for both the students and their teachers. In fact, to be able to keep this high standard, we have to dress them all in protective clothing. Otherwise, samples and cleanrooms themselves could become contaminated. Even a particle larger than 0.5 microns can destroy a sample,” explains Jiří Zita, who says that the nanofabrication process normally consists of many different steps, the number of which had to be reduced for the course. “However, nothing changes in the way it is done; despite this simplification, the students get a nice overview of how the production of electronic components on a chip is prepared.”
In the afternoon session, the students are given silicon wafers, or in other words, substrate disks with a diameter of 10 cm, on which chips with dimensions of approximately 1x1 cm are placed. They then apply an 80–100 nanometre-thin layer of aluminium and then a light-sensitive varnish, into which the structures are then essentially drawn. The next step is then to remove the non-illuminated photo lacquer and then dry and wet etching, which also removes the aluminium layer at specific points. “The result is a wafer with a visible pattern, which in our case, in addition to basic patterns, can also be the student’s name, the school logo or the CEITEC BUT logo,” he continues, adding that along with the sample, students will take home a certificate of completion.
Jiří Zita also points out that CEITEC BUT is already preparing the CEITEC Academy website, where high school teachers and students will find important information about all the courses that the institute will offer. The authors of the nanofabrication courses are even thinking of eventually offering similar events to upper primary school students. “Children in the eighth and ninth grades are deciding what direction their professional life will take one day. So I imagine that we could also introduce them to the world of technology and research in laboratories in a playful way. And if we can entice children to study STEM fields in this way, for example, that will only be a good thing,” he concludes.
Author: Kristina Blűmelová
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