Customer Reviews

Fabrication Engineering at the Micro and Nanoscale (The Oxford Series in Electrical and Computer Engineering)

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If you don't want to read too much, let me sum it up for you: Don't use this book to teach the concepts, only use it as a practical guide and reference in the field. The negative slant of this review is a result that the book is presented and sold as a teaching text-book in its format style, and that my professor used it as the course text-book. If I were reviewing it from a different perspective, it could be positive as the book provides a good deal of information.

This book is basically a culmination of industry and scientific research papers. With 20 chapters, and each chapter containing from 40 to over 100 reference sources, you could honestly say the author has done his homework; but the problem with this information is that it doesn't help me to do my homework. The chapters are walls of text sprinkled with un-explained assertions and confusing jargon that leave the reader to spend more time in other text books unrelated to the specific field or to scour the internet and the local library in hopes of finding any of the sources he cites.

The author pours out practical information without giving proper context in almost every paragraph it seems; leaving the impression that he assumes the reader is at a relatively high level of knowledge in this field already. At the same time he gives randomly disproportionate explanations that don't really have a place in the information he is trying to pass, only to confuse the concepts. He seems to only expand on the concepts he is comfortable with, and leaves his sources to poll information as valueless(in the teaching sense) filler.

The homework problems at the end of the chapter are worded rather ambiguously and are frustrating to even know what the author is asking. They also draw on information that is not inside of the book without disclaimer, which is a real no-no in my opinion when your goal is to teach the ideas. Overall a good majority of the problem solving is a frustrating effort of interpreting the author's language and implications rather than interpreting the concepts and ideas you're trying to learn.

I have a mixed opinion on the tables and figures. At times they are informative and help to visualize the concepts he is trying to explain, but the gray-scale coloring and nature of the figures makes it very ambiguous and at times ineffective. Some of the technical equipment schematics are interesting and show the organization of what he's trying to explain, but again, the ideas are sometimes too complex and drawn in an artistic style that really makes the visualization ambiguous and confusing. Basically there's too much struggle between trying to look pretty and simple, and portraying the information clearly and exactly.

The book is a conflict of trying to be a definitive source of industry information while also trying to relay different levels of understanding in physics. I would rather buy two books, one explaining the physics and mathematics of the core engineering concepts, and another explaining the applications, wisdom, standards, and practical facts of the industry. The book does not do the physics justice: it is relatively half-assed for a "text book".

Who I would recommend this book for:
Researchers, professors, and graduate students with at least a year of experience in the field. I also would recommend this to a newly graduated student looking to get some practical "facts" memorized for a job interview if he seeks a career in the electronics fabrication industry. Also, I'm sure many engineers and scientists working at corporations and organizations in this industry could benefit from having it on their cubicle shelf.

Who I do not recommend this for:
Firstly, I should never recommend a student to not read a book with valuable information; however, I think any course in this field should not rely on this text-book as a teaching tool. So I must say instructors and professors who are teaching: NEVER rely on this book as your course text book. You need a more teaching-oriented text that goes in more depth of the principles rather than random details interjected from 50 years of reference sources where the student is burdened with knowing what parts are important. This book is fine as a secondary source for material to discuss in lectures or supplement the curriculum.

I actually took the class with the author of the book as the instructur, so it that was very helpful, otherwise there are places in the book that can be confusing. The information in the book is very accurate however, and there is a lot of good info,

The homework in this book is so awful. Many problems we cannot find the formular or use the knowledge in this textbook to solve. Some formular in the solution manual I even don't know where the heck they come from. They are not in the textbook.

Moreover, my professor considers this solution manual for this textbook as if the most true things in the world. He seem not to think about the solution of the problem, he just take a look at the solution manual and then compare the students' answers with this holy solution manual. Even my answer is correct, but the way I put the terms in formula is different order compared to the solution, I still get a minus point for this.

This book should be used for refence, not textbook. If it is textbook, they should not give the instructors and professors the solution manual. They just compare the students' answers with this holy solution manual, without thinking about if the answers are right or wrong.