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Symposium 2000 Summary ReportOn Friday, April 21, the Northern California Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (NorCal AIChE) held the 38th Annual One-Day symposium at SRI in Menlo Park. This year's symposium theme was: The Semiconductor Industry: Challenges and Solutions for the 21st Century Symposium registration included about 140 Engineers and Scientists from CA, AZ, OR, TX and MA and students from local universities all eager to learn about the latest advances in semiconductors and about opportunities for Chemical Engineers to help resolve outstanding challenges. Half an hour before registration was due, one third of the attendees were already in the lobby! The symposium had an exciting program with 7 excellent technical presentations and a keynote speech by Dr. Sunlin Chou, VP and General Manager of Technology and Manufacturing at Intel. His speech was the highlight of the event. Dr. Chou gave a vibrant and extraordinary overview of the challenges in the semiconductor industry. Furthermore, he elucidated the audience on the significance of the semiconductor industry and inspired students, researchers and engineers to embrace the semiconductor field with the assurance of developing a rewarding career. Stan Myers, President and CEO of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) opened the symposium. Stan talked about the role of semiconductor equipment and materials suppliers in sustaining the advancement of the semiconductor industry and gave an outlook for the Chip and Equipment & Material industry sectors. Stanâs presentation was a formidable overview of the semiconductor industry and set the tone for the technical presentations given throughout the day. Dr. Stacey Bent, Assistant Professor at Stanford University gave a presentation on the mechanisms of gas-surface reactions during semiconductor growth and modification. Stacey described the use of spectroscopic techniques and discussed chemical vapor deposition of amorphous and microcrystalline semiconductors and the development of synthetic strategies for organic functionalization of semiconductor surfaces. Staceyâs presentation provided a good understanding of semiconductor processing on a molecular level. Dr. Suketu Parikh, a member of technical staff of Applied Materials Equipment Process Integration Center (EPIC) presented a paper on materials requirements and provided a good understanding of the need to phase out Al and replace it with Cu for some applications. Suketu discussed the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to create damascene structures and also discussed the impact of other technologies such as etching, lithography, metal barrier, electroplating and Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) on successful integration of new materials. Dr. Scott Hector, Manager of Advanced Lithography at Motorola's Advanced Products Research and Development Laboratory gave a presentation on challenges in optical lithography and its impact on the semiconductor industry. Scott discussed the challenges of introducing shorter wavelengths and in particular 157 nm, to improve resolution. He also discussed non-optical lithography techniques for <100 nm patterning. Sameer Parab, process development staff lead at Elantec Semiconductor gave a presentation on advances in bipolar transistor structures and its impact on the semiconductor industry. In his presentation, Sameer discussed performance enhancements in transistors offered by advanced analog processes and showed strategies to integrate active components and parasitic effects using advanced process technologies to process bipolar transistor structures that can meet the performance demands in the 21st century. Dr. Michael Smayling, a Senior Director of Technology Integration at the Applied Materials Equipment Process Integration Center (EPIC) gave a presentation on transistor structures and their impact on semiconductors. According to Mike, gate lengths of transistors - device-of-choice for VLSI and ULSI integrated circuits, shrunk from ~3 mm in the early 1980âs to ~0.2mm today. Mike identified as key parameters for logic chips: frequency, power (active and/or standby), reliability, and cost. Addressing these parameters and improvements in other semiconductor areas created significant challenges for the development of transistor structures.Dirk Smits, VP Marketing at Hellobrain.com gave a presentation on the role of Information Technology in technology transfer and impact on semiconductor industry. Dirk introduced the concept of intellectual capital exchange. It is an Internet-based virtual marketplace for the exchange of technology solutions, to help buyers and sellers find each other. At the luncheon, AIChE Awards for Outstanding Senior College students and for Professional Excellence were presented. This year, the winners were: Outstanding Seniors in Chemical Engineering
Ray Mugele Award
Chemical Engineering Excellence Awards
The following Vendors organized throughout the day a display of semiconductor equipment and services: AF Equipment Co., Inc.; Alcatel Vacuum Products, Inc.; Modoc Engineering Corp.; Heatwave; Varian Vacuum Technologies; Sputter Met, Inc.; Sunnyvale Valve & Fitting Co.; DryScrub Electrochemical Tech. Corp.; High Purity Supplies; Milestone Technology. The symposium was sponsored by: Decon Environmental Services, Applied Materials, Clorox, IBM, Intel and Alza Corporation. NorCal AIChE Symposium 2000 was a tremendous success! Thank you all for participating. Please send your suggestions of topics for next yearâs symposium to: Dr. Andre Da Costa |