60 for 60: Durham Tech was a pioneer in offering Microelectronics program

In celebration of Durham Technical Community College’s 60th anniversary, the College is publishing 60 for 60 – a storytelling campaign that highlights the people, places, and events that have progressed and shaped the College’s six decades of impact. To view more 60 for 60 stories, visit www.durhamtech.edu/60for60. 

In the 1980s, electronics, microelectronics, robotics, and technology began to boom in Durham and the Research Triangle Park.  

Leadership at Durham Technical Institute wanted the College to provide the necessary training for those career fields.   

On May 18, 1983, the state board of community colleges approved funding for the development of a microelectronics technology program. This funding allowed Durham Tech to become one of the first two-year colleges in North Carolina to provide microelectronics training.    

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff and students of Durham Technical Institute, allow me to extend our most sincere appreciation for your exemplary efforts which directly resulted in the General Assembly’s appropriation of $200,000.00 in high-technology training funds for upgrading and enhancing Durham Tech’s Microelectronics Technology program and the parallel Electronics Engineering Technology program. We are proud to have the only Microelectronics Technology Associate Degree program in the state,” said former President Phail Wynn, Jr. in a 1983 letter to Senators Royall and Hancock. 

The two-year associate degree program was an expansion of the semiconductor processing courses at the College.   

The program was established to train operators and technicians to work at businesses such as Mitsubishi and Sumitomo. It provided working knowledge of microelectronic chip manufacturing processes and laboratory skills in measuring, testing, and inspecting microelectronic circuits. It also taught manufacturing processes, electronic theory and practice applications, and scientific laboratory skills.   

The first cohort of students started the program in January 1984 and completed courses, such as: 

• Introduction to Semiconductor and Microelectronics Technology  
• Microelectronics Processing and Device Design  
• Semiconductor Device Analysis and Physical Layout  

At the time, Dr. Vijay S. Joshi was program director and Tseng-Yuan Woo was one of the first instructors.  

One of Durham Tech’s former Board of Trustee members, James I. Bolden, said the College was very active in the community around this time.  

“Durham Tech is known anywhere in the state for microelectronics instruction and training for new industry,” Bolden said at the time.

The first graduates of Durham Tech’s Microelectronics Technology program earned their degrees in June 1985, including Alton “Buddy” Jones, Barbara Leak, Jackie Spivey, and Cheryl Sumpter.   

Sumpter said the microelectronics program at Durham Tech was challenging, fun, and provided a lot of hands-on learning opportunities.

“I decided to go to Durham Tech because students had a good success rate of getting jobs. Once I graduated from UNC, I couldn’t find a job because I had a liberal arts degree, but when I graduated from Durham Tech, I scored three job offers with high tech companies,” said Sumpter.  

Microelectronics was offered at the College from 1983 until the early 90s.  

For more information, contact Desiree Towson, M.S., Communications and Public Relations Coordinator, at allisontowsond@durhamtech.edu.