Microelectronics, Optoelectronics and Nanotechnologies (MON)

The Microelectronics, Optoelectronics and Nanotechnologies (MON) study program prepares specialists for both traditional and very new fields of electronics.

Microelectronics has an almost encyclopedic character, through the multifunctional circuits and systems it designs and builds (and which represent electronics of the highest level), through the cutting-edge nanotechnologies it promotes, but also through the openness and horizon it offers to students and specialists alike

The MON graduate will identify with the engineer capable of:

• design and "pour into silicon" microelectronic systems using the ability to quickly adapt to the latest software tools and nanoelectronic technologies;
• to build and coordinate an optical communications system;
• understand the finer points of computability.

Skills provided by the study programme:

• Use fundamental knowledge of electronic devices, circuits and instrumentation.
• Applying, in typical situations, the basic methods of processing electrical and non-electrical signals, implementing procedures of medium complexity on signal processors.
• Understand and use fundamental concepts in the field of communications and information transmission.
• Application of fundamental knowledge, concepts and methods concerning computer systems architecture, microcontrollers, programming languages and techniques.
• Multiple skills to work as a designer of medium complexity microsystems, analog, digital and mixed-signal, or as a process technologist using the ability to quickly adapt to the latest software tools and nanoelectronic technologies.
• Advanced modeling of fundamental electronic devices and circuits for VLSI integrated circuit simulators.
• Design, simulation and characterisation of optoelectronic devices and circuits and optical communication systems.
• Methodical analysis of the problems encountered in the activity, identifying the elements for which there are established solutions, thus ensuring the fulfillment of professional tasks.
• Flexible adaptation, at user level, to new systems and technologies in the field, within work teams with well-defined tasks.

Curriculum

The Microelectronics, Optoelectronics and Nanotechnologies (MON) study programme trains specialists in traditional and very new areas of electronics. Traditional, given that any electronic equipment or communication system incorporates integrated devices and circuits, typical products of microelectronics, and current since optoelectronics became established after 1990 and CMOS nanometer technologies were introduced, through an extremely bold and aggressive policy, very recently, in 2003 (90nm technology) and 2005 (65nm).

Thus, in the current period, characterized by a great specialization in one field or another, microelectronics has an almost encyclopedic character, through the multifunctional circuits and systems it designs and builds (and which represent electronics of the highest level), through the cutting-edge nanotechnologies it promotes, but also through the openness and horizon it offers to students and specialists alike.

The microelectronics engineer has become a service provider of a special kind: he is at the interface between a concrete problem and its solution, by realizing it in silicon. Clients from a wide variety of fields hire them to design, to advise, to mediate the physical realisation: it is an enviable situation for any engineer because of the variety of intellectual and financial options, the existence of a huge market which seems never to be saturated, the fascination of the new, the many possibilities for asserting one's personality. The phrase is apt when it comes to the work of microelectronics specialists: it is not important to do what you like, but to like what you do.

One truth - the huge cost of manufacturing and fabrication - is generally used simplistically and in jest to deny the possibility of making microelectronics in Romania. The fallacy behind this statement lies in ignoring the global nature of the microelectronics industry. Today it is normal for an integrated circuit to be designed, cast in silicon, tested and encapsulated in different countries and continents and by different companies; one can speak of a global maturation of microelectronics.

As a result, the Microelectronics, Optoelectronics and Nanotechnologies (MON) study programme finds its full justification among the specialisations of the ETTI faculty. The curriculum has been designed with a broad outreach, using programmes from elite universities with similar specialisations as models.

A package of subjects familiarises students with the modelling and simulation of microelectronic and optoelectronic components and the theoretical basis of signal processing and communications: Modelling of active microelectronic components, Optoelectronic devices, Dielectric and magnetic devices, Advanced techniques for digital signal processing, Optical communication systems. The aim is to gain knowledge of various simulation programs in hierarchical relationship, correlation with computational accuracy and type of integrated circuit or optical system, to establish physical and technological limits in the realization of devices for VLSI integrated circuits and to modify fundamental models in accordance with the evolution of the scaling process.

Another category of courses such as Fundamentals of Microelectronics Technology, Semiconductor Devices and Integrated Circuits Testing study the technologies and test systems in microelectronics and optoelectronics. An understanding of modern CMOS, BiCMOS, and bipolar technology processes is covered so that the student can evaluate characteristic resources and limitations. It is also intended to provide the level of knowledge to enable the student's professional development, either as a designer of monolithic analog, digital or mixed-signal monolithic microsystems or as a process technologist.

Special attention is given to the design and simulation of analog and digital VLSI integrated circuits through the disciplines: Low Voltage and Low Power Integrated Circuits, Design Techniques for VLSI Structures and the study of intelligent microsystems in courses such as Photonic Sensors and Transducers and Microsensors. The courses provide skills for the design of circuits with low operating voltages and low power consumption, of sensors used in a wide range of applications.

The Microelectronics and Nanotechnologies Directorate links the field of electronic devices and circuits with that of computing systems. The increase in complexity and diversity of computing systems has triggered a seemingly paradoxical process: bringing electronic circuit design and computer science concerns closer together. Computing systems architecture is the bridge that facilitates direct access from the level of electronic circuits to the level of design and use of computing systems. In disciplines such as Operating Systems, Databases the focus is on general computer science issues and through applications the specific issues of the section are deepened. This provides a good general education, useful in a wide range of fields. Other disciplines present the latest software tools in this dynamic field: Virtual Instrumentation for Microelectronic Systems, Software Tools in Microelectronics.

All the specialist courses in the MON specialisation benefit from simulation and modelling laboratories with state-of-the-art hardware (workstations, IBM-RISC, SUN, HEWLETT-PACKARD, Pentium-type PC networks) and software (MENTHOR, CADENCE, T-SUPREM IV, ATLAS, ATHENA, MEDICI software packages): the Computer Experimentation of Integrated Devices and Circuits laboratory equipped by Hewlett-Packard, the Microelectronic Systems laboratory, equipped by ATMEL Romania, the Integrated Circuits and Microsystems laboratory, equipped by Catalyst Semiconductor Romania, are some examples. All these laboratories are involved in international research programmes.

Other labs complement students' practical training. Part of this training is obtained on the technological lines of Optoelectronica S.A, Institut National de Microtechnologies (IMT), Catalyst - Semiconductor etc., where MON students do their internship. The Advanced Semiconductor Devices Laboratory benefits from the technological facilities, unique in the country, of IMT Bucharest.

Optoelectronics, the youngest branch of electronics, has been included in the MON curriculum due to the explosion of this field in recent years. Our faculty can boast that it was the 4th higher education institution in the world to promote optoelectronics after: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - USA, Imperial College of London - England and Politechnical Institute of Tel Aviv - Israel.

A major advantage offered by the training provided by the MON programme is the ease with which graduates of this specialisation can migrate into any of the fields of modern electronics; the reverse route is much more difficult and sometimes impossible.

Students graduating from the MON programme, with meritorious results, can continue their studies at the Master. This cycle offers the possibility to specialise in: Micro and Nano-technologies, Microsystems, Quality and Reliability Engineering, Advanced Microelectronics Architectures and Systems, Optoelectronics. Master students carry out practical, laboratory and project activities in state-of-the-art laboratories. The third cycle is for doctoral studies and lasts 3 years. About 30 places are offered annually to graduates of the MON specialisation. Many doctoral students have the possibility to carry out training periods in different laboratories in prestigious universities such as: University of Cambridge, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Ecole Polytechnique de Laussane etc.

The academic staff of the faculty working in Microelectronics, Optoelectronics and Nanotechnologies has a recognized prestige and a long tradition in scientific research, illustrated by books published by prestigious publishers in the country and abroad or articles published in the most important international journals. A number of professors are well-known scientific personalities, members of the Romanian Academy, the Academy of Scientists or of well-known international academic and scientific societies.

In most scientific and technological research programmes funded by the European Community and/or national programmes and grants, MON students make an important contribution.