Lithography Veteran Joins SEMATECH To Lead Metrology
Michael Lercel has joined SEMATECH as senior director
for nanodefectivity and metrology.
He will be leading both SEMATECH's ongoing metrology program and a new Nanodefect Centre based at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's (CNSE) Albany NanoTech Complex. As director of these two important and related initiatives, Lercel will serve as the technical liaison between partner companies and will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to overcome the industry's most pressing defectivity and metrology challenges.
SEMATECH's Nanodefect Centre aims to build industry
participation in detecting, modelling, characterising, and providing solutions
for defect issues as geometries shrink below the 10 nm node.
The centre will expand upon SEMATECH's world leading suite of metrology and analysis capabilities to investigate the generation, propagation, removal, and impact of defects generated by equipment, equipment components, and materials used in advanced semiconductor processes such as lithography, etch, CMP, deposition, and cleaning.
"This latest hire brings additional expertise to
SEMATECH, and in turn will raise the level of our research efforts, enhance our
relationships with our partners and further strengthen SEMATECH's commitment in
identifying the challenges of future technology nodes," said Dan Armbrust,
SEMATECH's president and CEO.
"I am delighted to have a leader of Mike's caliber, and with his extensive experiences in semiconductor process and equipment R&D and manufacturing, he brings a wealth of real-world processing knowledge that will be an invaluable asset to drive our nanodefect program at SEMATECH."
Lercel joins SEMATECH from Cymer, where he was senior director of EUV product marketing. Prior to Cymer, he served in various lithography-related positions at IBM for fourteen years, most recently as Strategic Equipment Council Manager. Lercel was SEMATECH's director of lithography from 2005 to 2008, as an assignee from IBM, driving critical R&D in next-generation litho technologies.
Lercel received a doctorate in physics from Cornell University and holds a bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also owns eleven patents and has delivered numerous presentations and papers at major industry meetings.
