Term "growth per cycle" (GPC) gaining wider use

"Growth per cycle (GPC)" (unit e.g., nm) and "growth rate" (unit e.g., nm/cyc) have been described as alternative names to denote the time-independent amount of material deposited in a completed atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycle. The recent Baltic ALD 2016 conference confirmed the trend which I have noticed already earlier: the ALD community more and more shifts to use GPC.

I have been advocating the use of GPC since the early 2000s. A bit of history may be in place to explain why I chose to use GPC in the first place---how did it all get started? In the following, I will tell how one specific person has played a major role in the background.

VPHA status update 15.8.2016

The VPHA status update below was sent by email to 71 VPHA co-authors and 31 prospective co-authors. More volunteers are still welcome to join the VPHA reading & commenting effort. 

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 Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

Much has happened regarding the understanding of the early history of ALD in the last two months since the previous general VPHA status update on May 16 --- you can access earlier VPHA status updates here. We are now starting active preparations for the next steps, so it is a good time to review the progress made so far.

Below, you find and update on the following topics:

• VPHA poster at ALD 2016, with results of VPHA voting
• Next step: VPHA reading, 3rd commenting round to come
• Next step: Letter/article to JVSTA special issue (DL September 6)
• Invited plenary talk by Prof. Anatoly Malygin at ALD 2016
• ALD Innovation Prize at ALD 2016 to Dr. Suvi Haukka, ASM, Finland
• Recent ALD-related advances in Wikipedia (#WikiALD)
• About an increased Twitter activity related to (#ALDep)
• VPHA ALD thesis list with >300 entries, many missing still?
• New in ALD History Blog: ALD Glossary
• Other ALD History Blog posts

ALD Innovation Prize to Dr. Suvi Haukka, ASM

Last updated 14.9.2016

Dr. Suvi Haukka, executive scientist at ASM, located Finland, was awarded the ALD Innovation prize at the ALD 2016 Ireland conference. In general the prize, awarded since 2011, is given "For innovative research in ALD and Service to the ALD community". Conference chair(s) choose the receiver of the prize. Personal justification for Dr. Suvi Haukka was described by Prof. Gregory Parsons, last year's awardee as: "For pioneering studies of ALD surface chemistry and for advocating the importance of fundamental understanding for ALD industrial scaling". 

Prof. Greg Parsons handing Dr. Suvi Haukka the ALD innovation prize. Photo by Riikka Puurunen.

Dr. Suvi Haukka has had a lifetime career in Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). She started at Microchemistry Ltd. with Dr. Tuomo Suntola in 1990 and has since then advanced the science and technology of ALD worldwide. Since the Dutch ASM International bought Microchemistry in 1999, Suvi Haukka has been in key role at ASM in bringing ALD as a standard means of manufacturing in the semiconductor industry. A major milestone was the adoption of ALD by Intel in CMOS transistor gate dielectrics in 2007. Today, ALD equipment manufacturing is multi-USD100M business yearly. Dr. Suvi Haukka holds over 100 patents related to ALD.

ALD 2016: Travel notes

Updated 28.8.2016

The 16th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition ALD2016 (http://www.ald2016.ie), including the 3rd International Workshop on Atomic Layer Etching, was organized in Dublin, Ireland, July 24-27, 2016. I had a pleasure to participate at the conference as a speaker, poster presenter, and as an International Programme Committee member. This blog post shares my travel notes from conference, thereby continuing my series on travel notes first written for the ALD Russia 2015 workshop and thereafter for Baltic ALD 2015, my St Petersburg visit Nov 2015, and HERALD Helsinki seminar May 2016.

ALD 2016 conference chairs Simon Elliott and Jonas Sundqvist. Photo from Twitter, @jv3sund. 

Since the first American Vacuum Society Topical Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition  in Monterey CA 2001, the international ALD conference series organized every odd year in USA by the AVS and every even year outside USA in collaboration with AVS, has evolved into a major event that provides the best possible snapshot of ALD at the forefront of science at academia and industry alike. There were more than 800 registered participants at the meeting, of which about 50% were industrial; and about 400 presentations, of which about 10% were industrial. The conference lasted for three days and comprised maximum four parallel sessions and two days of poster sessions. All presentations were recorded and will be made available on a DVD after the conference (past DVDs can be bought from AVS by contacting heather@ avs.org).