The Problem

The semiconductor industry is among the fastest growing in the United States, yet most engineering students have no way to access hands-on education. Restrictive cleanrooms, company training and expensive equipment hide the entire industry behind them. Students need an accessible entry point, to prevent a national talent gap of semiconductor engineers and innovators.
 

What We Do

Irvine Hacker Fab closes this gap. We’re an interdisciplinary, student-led group building classroom-scale, low-cost tools that make hands-on fabrication practical for students, researchers and community labs. On top of building the hands-on semiconductor fabrication skills for dozens of UC Irvine students, we keep our research open-sourced, so any team can fabricate and educate at a fraction of the cost of commercial fabs.

                           Our 2025-26 team at a general meeting.

The organization is part of a global Hacker Fab network started at Carnegie Mellon. We are the first and largest Hacker Fab chapter on the US West Coast, with the long-term goal of spreading the movement across the UC system and making our state the hub for silicon fabrication talent.
 

Our Impact

Community: 100+ UC Irvine students attend general meetings, lectures, workshops and industry speaker events. 250+ participate in our community Discord. We welcome all majors, from engineering, to physics, to material science, to business.

Development: dozens of students participate in our engineering projects, learning hands-on skills in electrical, mechanical, chemical and software engineering. So far, they’ve built:

• Lithography system patterning silicon wafers with 50 micrometer precision
  
• 3D-printable spincoater tested on real photoresist used in chip development
• Vacuum chamber for high-vacuum thermal evaporation

              Students developing low-cost semiconductor equipment.

Research: Since our start in 2024, we’ve run 3 independent research projects studying how to achieve low-cost semiconductor processes, which we’ve presented at symposiums and published as open-source docs for the world to replicate.

                       Students collecting lithography research data.

Education: We regularly run programs that teach the end-to-end process flow: clean, coat, expose or align, develop, bake or anneal, deposit, and measure. Students also receive supervised training and process exposure at the UC Irvine Nanofabrication Facility.
 
                   Summer research program participant presenting
                      their findings to professors and professionals.
 

Our Goals

Last year, we were able to research, build and develop 2 semiconductor fabrication tools: a lithostepper and a spincoater. We want to go further, and become the first student-led Californian semiconductor fab to fabricate a real transistor, end-to-end.

To achieve this, we will:

• Build out a complete deposition system
  
• Build and motorize an XYZ stage for multi-layer lithography
• Establish repeatable characterization process flows
• Combine our processes to produce diodes and eventually, thin-film transistors

                            Our proof-of-concept pattern on silicon.


                     Layout of a test chip with transistors, diodes, and 
                   other electrical structures, designed to complement 
                                       and support Hacker Fab.

Furthermore, we will double down on our educational efforts by:

• Running bigger workshops and industry events
  
• Engaging in heavy local outreach to introduce more students to the world of semiconductors
• Running quarterly 6-week research programs for students to explore the fabrication topics of their choice (our summer pilot program helped 9 students write research papers and give presentations!)
• Regularly inviting small batches of students to get training on our equipment, such as the spincoater

Both our fabrication research efforts and these educational programs are impossible without your help. Join us to make UC Irvine the leader in semiconductor education statewide, and demystify this industry for hundreds of students!
 

Connect With Us

Check out our website, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn or reach out to us directly via email at irvinehackerfab@gmail.com.