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Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation , vol. 4, 2016, pp. 19 - 21

A Way to Introduce Innovative Approach in the Field of

Microelectronics and Nanotechnologies in the Chinese

Education System

Olivier Bonnaud
1,2,3,*

, Lei Wei
3

1
Department of microelectronics and microsensors, IETR, University of Rennes 1, Rennes , France.

2
National Coordination for Education in Microelectronics and Nanotechnologies, Grenoble, France .

3
Department of Electrical Engineering, South -East University, Nanjing (Jiangsu), China.

Received 22 February 2016; received in revised form 21 March 2016; accept ed 10 April 2016

Abstract

The innovation is more and more useful in

order to develop new products such as the con-

necting objects. The field of microe lectronics is

particularly concerned by them since it co m-

bines the fast evolution of the technology, and

their application to many domains. The educ a-

tive system in China is ma inly based on me mo-

rization o f knowledge: the students are lac king

of methodology, understanding and practice. In

the same time, the pedagogy in higher education

moves progressively towards a numerical ap-

proach. In this context, the ma in challenge is to

give to the students, the methodology, the

know-how, and thus an innovative behaviour. In

this way, several suggestions are given: intro-

duction of much more works on applications of

the theoretical knowledge, tra ining on the lin k-

ing of knowledge, and imp rovement of the

practice by laboratory works on dedicated pla t-

forms.

Keywor ds : innovation, higher education, mi-

croelectronics , practice and lab-

works.

1. Introduction

The economica l world encourages more and

more innovation in order to develop new prod-

ucts that should answer to the future societal

needs, more especially the connecting objects.

The fie ld of microelectronics is particularly

concerned because these objects combine the

strong improvement of the microe lectronics

technologies , and the application to many d o-

ma ins. In the sa me time, the pedagogy in higher

education shifts towards a numerica l world by

involving tools based on Massive Open Online

Courses (MOOCs), internet sites, modelling and

simu lation. The ma in challenge is to g ive to the

future engineers, the methodology and the

know-how, wh ich is not enough provided

nowadays, and thus an innovative approach. The

pedagogical approach in Ch ina, fro m the pri-

ma ry school to the University, is based on the

learning of knowledge, main ly. The evaluation

and the selection are based on the me morization

as well. Several weaknesses are revealed. This

paper highlights these points and suggests sev-

eral improve ments in order to give to the future

engineers an innovative behavior in the fie ld of

microelectronics .

2. Situation of the Higher Education

in China

The previous experience in China of the

authors shows that the basic education presents

several weakness es in the pedagogical method-

ology. On the one hand, in the learning of basic

knowledge since the primary school, the pupils,

then the schoolers, and finally the students are

spending a lot of time learning by heart a diffi-

cult language, and, with the same approach, the

scientific background (mathemat ics, physics,

chemistry, etc.). On the other hand, they have a

low a mount of practice, inc luding applications

of theories through resolution of problems, and a

very lo w a mount of laboratory works. But this

practice is revealed very effic ient to assimilate

more the methodology and the logical de mo n-

strations than the theoretical knowledge. If the

me mo rizat ion by heart is efficient to g ive to the

* Corresponding aut hor.
Email: Olivier.bonnaud@univ-rennes1.fr

Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation , vol. 4, 2016, pp. 19 - 21

students the good capacities of communication

in their national language, however the students

lack a general approach that allows a deep u n-

derstanding of a scientific fie ld, and also the link

of knowledge between several fields.

In the fra me of 1000 Ta lents program of

China’s Govern ment, an analysis of the situation

in the fie ld of M icroe lectronics raises additional

weaknesses, specific to this field. Indeed, due

the very e xpensive equipment for devices and

circuits, the students have in average a very poor

know-how. In addition, because this domain has

a permanent and very fast evolution, the practice

can be always obsolete if an innovative strategy

is not applied by the institutions and their ed u-

cational departments. These weaknesses give

rise to some suggestions that can imp rove the

efficiency of the acquisition of skills in this

domain.

3. Evolution of the Technologies

The very fast evolution of the microelec -

tronics integration since more than forty years is

well known and is called the Moore’s law [1].

This heuristic indicates the decrease of the

transistor size as a time function thanks to the

tremendous improvement of the technological

fabrication processes and to the huge increase of

the performances of the co mputer tools and

associated software. These improve ments have

later opened the doors to the system integration,

called the “More than Moore" evolution [ 2]. It

corresponds today to an increase of the co m-

ple xity by combining several technologies and

the packaging capabilities , by mixing other

functions than electrical ones , and by designing

the ele mentary devices and the integrated cir-

cuits in three dimensions . This evolution in-

duced new generic technologies such as mech a-

tronics, optoelectronics, bioelectronics, sys-

tems -on-chips, large area electronics, etc. that

combine skills in several fie lds and that are

intrinsically mu ltidiscip linary [3]. Indeed, these

new concepts are already applied main ly to the

sectors of health, environ ment, security, energy,

agriculture, transport, and commun ications,

which a re considered as the first priority for our

future technological societies. Thanks to the

concomitant strong evolution of the commun i-

cations, through internet, through wireless

communicat ions such as Wifi, Zig Bee, Blue-

tooth, 3G, 4G, cloud, etc., it is predicted a fast

evolution towards connecting objects in a ll the

mentioned applications. Many reports made by

international e xpe rts highlight this evolution for

the next ten years [4].

4. Innovation Approach Linked to

Microelectronics

For the design of these connecting objects ,

the engineers in research and development

centers must combine the knowledge and the

know-how of several fields and must be inno-

vative. This innovation may co me by the cap a-

bilities of the designers to analyze the econom-

ical and societal needs , to make links between

technologies, to extract the concepts of existing

applications, to apply the selected concepts of

one field to another one. All these qualities and

know-how should be initiated during the studies .

In other words, this means a high knowledge and

the know-how that allows the control of the

limitat ions of the systems, the definit ion of the

adapted mission profiles, the control of the

security of the equipment and of the effective

application, and the reliability as well.

This supposes during the studies a very good

background in scientific disciplines, a good

training including pract ice and laboratory works,

and a mult idisciplinary approach including the

capacity to establish links between the different

fie lds (commun ications between engineers,

understanding of the concepts, etc.).

5. Expected Evolution of the Higher
Education

Many governments of developed countries

try to develop the numerica l approach of many

branches of the economy, and more especially

the education one. Thanks to the huge increase

of the performances of the dig ital tools associ-

ated to the powerful co mputing capabilities of

the hardware (microprocessors, DSP, etc.), to

the size of the software, new educative tools can

be created. They can contain texts, pictures,

animations , videos , but also simu lations and

modeling. If these tools can be really useful to

ma ke easier the co mprehension of the basic

knowledge, they appear insuffic ient to under-

stand the methodology, to make links between

knowledge and above all they rema in virtual.

The functioning of connecting objects is often

very different fro m the one of virtual objects .

The main reason is the comple xity of the env i-

ronment that can affect the functioning of a

Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation , vol. 4, 2016, pp. 19 - 21

product, for e xa mple , effects of the temperature,

the pressure, the chemica l environ ment, etc. The

natural environment is so much comple x that it

is very difficult to guarantee that a simulator

takes all the para meters into account! Thus a

comple mentary practice is mandatory in order to

well understand the limitat ions , the range of the

physical para meters, and the mission profile .

This practice is also a way to better e xpla in the

fundamental background, to give a know-how in

real situations that is a key approach to develop

the skills of analysis, of synthesis, of ma king

lin ks between several disciplines. This approach

allo ws the building of an innovative behavior of

the students.

6. Suggestion of Evolution of the

Chinese Higher Education

Many suggestions can be made in order to

improve the innovative approach [5]. We mention

those that can be the most efficient in the present

situation. The first concerns the methodology of

teaching that should not be mainly based on

me morization but that could include problem

solving, cases studies of real objects and their

limitations of functioning. The second point is

focused on the need of practice. In the field of

microelectronics, due to the high costs of the

software and of the technological facilities, the

set-up of common platforms should give a solu-

tion. This approach was developed in France

since many years in the frame of a national net-

work [6-7]. T welve national centers receive more

than 14.000 students per year in technological

cleanrooms, on benches of physical and electrical

characterizations, on platforms of modeling,

simulation, and computer-aided design. Moreo-

ver, an innovative strategy of the network is

applied through annual projects in order to

maintain an up-to-date training.

7. Conclusions

Several weakness es were observed in the

Chinese education system: they seem to have an

important impact on the learning of the mic roe-

lectronics discipline. The introduction of new

approaches that include much mo re analyses,

understanding and acquisition of know-how

should lead to a mo re e ffic ient lea rning adapted

to the permanent innovation needed in this

domain.

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the French Min-

istry of Education, the Ch inese 1000 Talents

program, and the French Excellence Init iative

program IDEFI (A NR-11-IDFI-0017 (2012)). A

special thanks to L. Chagoya-Ga rzon, secretary

of GIP-CNFM for her fru itful advice for the

redaction of this paper.

References

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