Your main job in the group is to create things: devices that combine MEMS dies, printed circuit boards and connectors, and the models and measurements that explain them. These are the skills you will use most. You do not need all of them on day one.
1. 3-D CAD
Get comfortable with SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor or Alibre. Almost every device needs a fixture, a package or an enclosure.
2. PCB layout
Learn one tool that does schematic capture and board layout. The group has historically used Eagle; KiCad is a free alternative.
3. IC and MEMS fabrication
Learn the concepts before you get cleanroom access: oxidation, photolithography, etching, doping, deposition, lift-off and HF vapor release. Read the fabrication sections of the group’s recent papers and the process pages in this wiki.
- Semiconductor device fabrication (Wikipedia overview)
4. Finite element analysis
Use COMSOL. Start with one simple example from start to finish: build the geometry, mesh it, apply loads, solve, and plot the result. The COMSOL tutorials are a good start.
5. Acoustics
Work through plane waves, acoustic impedance, reflection and transmission, spherical waves and monopole radiation, baffled piston radiation, and rectangular waveguides.
- D. T. Blackstock, Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics (Wiley)
- R. N. Miles, Physical Approach to Engineering Acoustics (Springer)
- L. Beranek and T. Mellow, Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers (Elsevier)
6. Transducers
Learn lumped-parameter and equivalent-circuit modeling, including the physics of piezoelectric devices. Prof. Hall’s Engineering Acoustics and Transducers course notes are the group’s standard reference; ask a senior student for the current copy.
7. Day-to-day tools
- References: Zotero. UT Libraries has a guide to Zotero storage.
- Figures: save as SVG so they stay editable. Inkscape works well for figures.
- Writing: draft in Word if you like, format the final version in Overleaf.
- Conferences: the Acoustical Society of America meetings are the group’s home conference; browse a recent program to see what people work on.
Next steps
- Read Standard photolithography before your first cleanroom session.
- Ask for access to the internal wiki for purchasing, accounts and lab logistics.
Something wrong or out of date? Fix it: edit this page on GitHub. See Editing this site.