Plasma-Therm Presents Workshop at Cornell
Plasma-Therm recently presented a day-long workshop at Cornell University on the fundamentals of plasma processing as used in the fabrication of semiconductors and other nanotechnology devices, the company announced.
"We received great feedback from our users who attended," said Donald M. Tennant, Director of Operations of the Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility (CNF) at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
"The Plasma-Therm workshop provided a great foundation for students and professional engineers alike to understand how plasma chemistry and technology are combined to achieve the optimum etch process for their project," Tennant said.
About 50 researchers attended the workshop, which was led by Dr. David Lishan, Director, Technical Marketing for Plasma-Therm. He presented a variety of plasma-related topics, ranging from the fundamentals of plasma processing to advanced etching and deposition technology, which are used in the manufacturing of semiconductors and other types of nanotechnology devices.
In addition to students and faculty of Cornell University, attendees included researchers from as far away as Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, and Case Western Reserve University, and from a number of corporations involved in photonics, telecommunications, aerospace, and laser technology.
Participants at the plasma workshop are involved in many areas of fundamental and applied research on devices and structures for which plasma processing technology is often a critical step, including fabrication of MEMS devices, waveguides, dielectric deposition, gallium nitridebased high-intensity LEDs, and advanced semiconductor packaging.
"Attendees uniformly appreciated the lectures for their range of content, and felt it was a really beneficial event," Tennant added. It helps support the many users at Cornell's CNF, which includes seven Plasma-Therm dry etching tools, including Plasma-Therm's popular VERSALINE® platform for deep-silicon etching.
Lishan has presented plasma processing workshops at more than 20 institutions in the United States, Sweden, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, Singapore, China, and other countries.
Lishan commented on the diverse materials and techniques that academic and industry researchers are studying as the basis for the next generation of nanotechnology devices.
"I'm very pleased that we have the opportunity to bring together so many disciplines and research areas at the plasma workshops," Lishan said. "Advances in materials and plasma processes are having a big impact across so many technology areas, from power devices to MEMS/NEMS, photonics, communication, sensors, and more. It's exciting to be involved with technology that touches so many areas of modern life."
