HERALD COST MP1402 event in Riika (Riga), Latvia

On Monday May 22nd, I visited Riika (Riga), Latvia, giving an invited talk at an event called "ALD nanotechnology: advances, prospects and applications" organized within the framework of the HERALD COST action MP1402 (http://www.european-ald.net/). The programme of the event, as provided by the organizers in advance, is copied at the end of this post.  

My presentation was entitled "On the history and future of ALD: VPHA, conformality analysis, mechanisms". The presentation explained the Virtual Project on the History of ALD (more volunteers are still welcome); introduced the PillarHall ALD conformality test structures developed at VTT (with a modelling example, too!) where we welcome more proof-of-concept partners; and pointed out the existing different views and a need to understand better the "model ALD process" trimethylaluminium-water. The presentation was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Sven Lindfors (1945-2017). At the end, I called for support letters to nominate Suntola and ALD for the Millennium Technology Prize 2018 (more to come on this in another post later). 

The presentation slides can be viewed in SlideShare. Additionally, Aalto University uses a tool called Panopto, with I tried, and with which I very easily could record my talk for later reference. A tool to be used in the future, too! The Panopto record can be viewed here.     

Some photos related to the event/this post below.

OT: Communication to VPHA participants on conformality analysis survey

The VPHA off-topic (OT) communication below was sent to 76 VPHA co-authors and 47 prospective co-authors. 

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 15. maaliskuuta 2017 19:05
To: Puurunen Riikka < >
Cc: Utriainen Mikko < >
Subject: Conformality analysis survey link to VPHA participants

Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

This email is not related to VPHA but to lateral high-aspect-ratio test structures created to analyse the conformality of films made by ALD and other methods. I hope that you do not mind receiving this “off-topic” message sent to all VPHA participants. 

Some of you know that I have been recently working on the topic of conformality analysis of ALD films. Currently, we continue to work on it at VTT in a project funded by Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. The recipient list has many people knowledgeable of the subject.

Nov 29, 2016: new webpage pillarhall.com

November 29 is the date when the first patent on Atomic Layer Epitaxy, currently known as Atomic Layer Deposition, was filed in 1974.

Forty years after filing the first patent, on the same day in 2014, the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Atomic Layer Deposition (ALDCoE) released the FinALD40 exhibition material. The material is still accessible through the aldcoe.fi and vph-ald.com websites.

Two years later, again on the same day, VTT launched a new website: http://pillarhall.com. This website is related to the microscopic lateral high-aspect-ratio (LHAR) thin film conformality test structure developed at VTT, also known as "PillarHall" (protected trademark). The original ideas that have resulted in the PillarHall test structures have been created by VTT'ers in the ALDCoE project funded by the Academy of Finland and has already resulted in two scientific publications (details in pillarhall.com). The research and development work continues with the University of Helsinki ALD group and many other groups worldwide, as well as in a dedicated "TUTL" project funded by Tekes - the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation.

"What you can't measure, you can't improve". If you are interested in VTT's conformality test structures, please have a look and find the appropriate contact information at the website http://pillarhall.com.

Diced 150 mm silicon wafer with PillarHallTM conformality test chip prototypes. Photo: Riikka Puurunen, VTT, November 16, 2016.

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Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA) - in atmosphere of Openness, Respect, and Trust

Baltic ALD 2016 St. Petersburg invited speaker list

The invited speaker list of Baltic ALD 2016 in St. Petersburg has been updated and is as follows (titles of the talks at the conference website http://www.bald2016.ru/).

• Riikka L. Puurunen, VTT Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Espoo, Finland
• Erwin Kessels, Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology,
• Mikko Ritala, Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Tobias Törndahl, Solid State Electronics, Uppsala University, Sweden
• Emma Salmi, Beneq Oy, Finland
• Viktor Drozd, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
• Viktor Luchinin, St Petersburg Electrotechnical University ”LETI”, Russia
• Andrey Markeev, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Screen capture from the conference website http://www.bald2016.ru/.

My invited talk---abstract here---is likely to be the last organizational presentation from VPHA.