The Measure of All Things

I’ve just returned from Albany, New York, where I attended the 2009 International Conference on Frontiers of Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics. I confess to having a soft spot in my heart for that event, because metrology is a field that has always fascinated me—overwhelmingly, there are so many things that we could not do and build if we weren’t able to measure them: from a picket fence board to the Space Shuttle.

Besides, not only is Semiconductor International the conference’s sponsoring publication, but I can also boast about being a member of the event’s committee. Some of the other alphabet-soup sponsors are CNSE NIST, ISMI, SEMI, IEEE, SRC, EDS, and NSF.

A great conference for metrologists--the next one is in 2011.

Regretfully, this year the attendance at this biennial conference (the next one will take place in 2011) was lower than 2007’s. Aside from the deleterious effect that the economy has had on all traveling budgets, this was also partly due to that fact that Japan, which traditionally has been well-represented, was almost absent this year. It seems that currently anyone leaving Japan can expect to be quarantined upon his or her return for fear of the swine flu, and few people are willing to go through that inconvenience at the end of what seems like a never-ending trip. Nevertheless, besides the United States there were presenters from Belgium, China, France, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan. There were a total of 34 talks and 81 poster presentations that summarized major issues and provided critical reviews of crucial semiconductor developments and techniques needed as the industry evolves to silicon nanoelectronics and beyond.

By now, all the papers should be posted at the NIST website, and will later be published in a hardcover volume by the American Institute of Physics, New York.

That being said, I want to tell you about the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany, which graciously provided us with the venue for the event.

CNSE is run by its benevolent dictator and CEO, Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, a slender, quiet and unpretentious gentleman whose daily uniform consists of a comfortable long-sleeved shirt and well-domesticated jeans. As ruler of this unique nanokingdom, Kaloyeros earns a yearly purse of $696,000. In these days of overpaid CEOs of tottering businesses this does not sound good, until you learn that practically single-handedly he has convinced New York politicians (one among them who, after touring the place afterward savvily spouted to the press about the importance of the "450-milliliter wafer") to fork over $900 million of taxpayers’ money into the college’s R&D facilities. Kaloyeros then proceeded to get an additional $3.5 billion from industry leaders such as Applied Materials, IBM, Tokyo Electron, and SEMATECH. This Pied Piper of Nanotech continues to arouse the interest of some 250 companies and organizations around the world to participate in, and contribute to, what CNSE is doing.

Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, CEO of the College of Nanoscale Science and
Engineering. (CNSE)

This is the first college ever to be dedicated to nanoscience, nanoengineering, nanobioscience, and nanoeconomics. Presently, the college consists of a 450,000 ft² complex with a 65,000 ft² Class 1-capable cleanroom, currently expanding to 800,000 ft², 80,000 of which will be taken up by an improved Class 1 cleanroom. Incidentally, the cleanroom houses the only fully integrated computer-chip pilot prototyping and demonstration line of its type. CNSE is a primary R&D complex for the companies already mentioned, as well as for ASML, Vistec Lithography, and others. The students who are fortunate enough to attend there, will graduate with an unparalleled hands-on experience gained from studying under a world-class faculty and working with the latest equipment. Some might even find themselves in the unusual situation of discovering that the company for which they work has equipment that is not as up to date as that which they studied on.



CNSE's EUV lithography alpha demo platform. This tool's
appearance always reminds me of a bad landing. (CNSE)

While I don’t mean to sound like a pitchman for CNSE, this visit has certainly made a booster out of me—it’s so nice to find out that nowadays somewhere, somehow, something is being done right! I was taken around the place and it seemed as if they had more equipment than was carted to SEMICON West during the days when we used to have an economy—plus they have something that only another place in the whole world (IMEC) has: one of the two ASML EUV litho alpha demo platforms.

At the end of my tour, I was taken through a lab chock full of graduate students busily working on the shape of small things to come, each of whom proudly—and in detail—described to me his or her project. I couldn’t help it. As I walked out of their place I turned around and said, "Guys, I really envy you!"

Apropos of Nothing



Have you ever noticed in submarine movies how, when the sub is depth-charged (and in submarine movies they always are) and as a result pipes break, there are always handy valves that shut down precisely the part that burst? And that these pipes only seem to spray water under pressure, and no other fluid such as oil? And that regardless how many of these pipes blow up, it never has any effect whatsoever on the running or functioning of the boat? And that these pipes almost always seem to burst solely on the bridge?And have you noticed how, when this happens to the bad guys’ sub, any broken pipe has a decidedly deadly effect?

And finally, have you noticed how subs--regardless of national origin--can always go well-beyond crush depth?