NVIDIA and Xilinx industry veterans join the eBeam Initiative
John Chen, vice president of technology and foundry management at NVIDIA Corporation, and Hugh Durdan, vice president of platform and solution marketing at Xilinx Inc., have joined the eBeam Initiative organisation as advisory members.
As the name suggests, the eBeam Initiative is a forum dedicated to the education and promotion of new semiconductor manufacturing approaches based on electron beam (eBeam) technologies.
The goals of the Initiative are to reduce the barriers to adoption to enable more integrated circuit design starts and faster time-to-market while increasing the investment in eBeam technologies throughout the semiconductor ecosystem.
Members and advisors, which span the semiconductor ecosystem include semiconductor processing and characterisation tool manufacturers, software developers for the semiconductor industry and chip manufacturers.
These latest additions bring the total number of eBeam Initiative advisors and corporate members to 44. The eBeam Initiative has also announced the launch of its video journal "The Fine Line" as an additional step in fostering education in eBeam technology within the semiconductor industry.
According to Aki Fujimura, CEO of D2S, Inc., managing company sponsor of the eBeam Initiative, "John and Hugh bring a wealth of experience to the eBeam Initiative. Their unique industry insight - in particular on the needs and dynamics of the semiconductor fabless community - will prove invaluable in supporting eBeam Initiative efforts to guide the semiconductor ecosystem in developing and commercialising new eBeam technologies that are critical to the future success of semiconductor manufacturing."
Fujimura adds, "We're also pleased to present our video journal "The Fine Line", which will feature perspectives from industry leaders on the latest developments and breakthroughs associated with eBeam technology."
The inaugural issue of "The Fine Line" is now available on the eBeam Initiative website.
Chen has 36 years of experience in the semiconductor industry across integrated device manufacturing, foundry and fabless companies. Prior to joining NVIDIA in 2004, he held senior executive positions at FlexICs, TSMC, WaferTech and Cypress. At TSMC, he was vice president and head of R&D, where his responsibilities included advanced mask making among other areas.
Earlier in his career, he worked at Hughes Research Lab and Xerox Palo Alto Research Center where he made contributions in CMOS, including e-beam direct writing, and wrote more than 100 papers and a book titled "CMOS Devices and Technology for VLSI."
He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1992 for leadership in and contributions to CMOS device and process technology.
Chen holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University, a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maine, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. He also holds a master's degree from the UCLA Executive Engineering Management Program. Previously a technical advisor for the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan, Chen now serves on several academic and industry boards.
Durdan is responsible for product definition, tools and IP marketing at Xilinx. Before joining Xilinx, he spent seven years at eSilicon, where he was most recently chief operating officer responsible for all aspects of strategy, customer success, revenue and profitability for a $120 million business.
Earlier in his career, he was vice president and general manager of Altera's $550 million business in the Computer, Consumer and Industrial vertical markets. Before that, he held senior management positions at LSI Logic, including vice president and general manager of the Computer and Storage Division and the Consumer Division.
He also led a hardware and software development team for Intel-based server products at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Durdan received his bachelor's degree in computer and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
