Work Experience Week 2025 – strengthening local ties with Notre Dame Sixth Form

The Leeds Nanotechnology Cleanroom was thrilled to partner with our neighbours at Notre Dame Sixth Form College to offer their students a unique work experience opportunity. The students spent a week of their Easter holidays fabricating a High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT), using the state-of-the-art equipment in our cleanroom and undertaking processes including coating and developing, photolithography, metrology, annealing and physical vapour deposition.

Working at Leeds University’s cleanroom was truly an eye-opening experience. Being introduced to advanced equipment and processes like photolithography and etching, and learning about the different protocols and precision work, has definitely deepened my interest in nanotechnology.

As always, the Leeds Nanotechnology Cleanroom is committed to supporting the Semiconductor Engineers of tomorrow by providing hands-on experiences and contributing to their training and development.

I enjoyed how multidisciplinary creating the devices was, implementing processes from a range of subject fields including physics, chemistry and engineering… It was very enjoyable looking at other devices such as the QCLs (quantum cascade lasers) and learning about their usage.

This experience was truly like no other - I'd definitely do it again. Something about getting suited up in full cleanroom gear, working hands-on with processes I’d never heard of, using equipment I never imagined I'd touch and then seeing our tiny creations up close made all the effort so rewarding and surreal.

For more information, or to make enquiries about future educational visits, please contact our outreach champion, Rob Farr.