VPHA status update 19.12.2016

The email below was sent to 76 VPHA co-authors and 40 prospective co-authors. 

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 19. joulukuuta 2016 9:23
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas

Subject: VPHA status update 19.12.2016

Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

With this general status update, I would like to inform you of the publication of the VPHA review article in JVSTA and update on other recent progress. The previous update was sent on October 30, 2016. Please read more below on the following topics:

1. VPHA JVSTA review published

2. VPHA reading status

3. VPHA's lists on reviews, conferences and theses to be completed

4. Translation of some Molecular Layering papers?

5. Other posts in the ALD History Blog

Wishing everyone happy holidays and the best of luck for the coming year,

Riikka Puurunen, VPHA coordinator

VPHA JVSTA article on the history of ALD published with Open Access

It is my pleasure to inform that VPHA's article on the recommended reading list of early ALD publications has been published online in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A (JVSTA), in the special ALD issue of January 2017.

• Title: Recommended reading list of early publications on atomic layer deposition—Outcome of the “Virtual Project on the History of ALD”
• Authors (62 in total, alphabetical order): Esko Ahvenniemi, Andrew R. Akbashev, Saima Ali, Mikhael Bechelany, Maria Berdova, Stefan Boyadjiev, David C. Cameron, Rong Chen, Mikhail Chubarov, Veronique Cremers, Anjana Devi, Viktor Drozd, Liliya Elnikova, Gloria Gottardi, Kestutis Grigoras, Dennis M. Hausmann, Cheol Seong Hwang, Shih-Hui Jen, Tanja Kallio, Jaana Kanervo, Ivan Khmelnitskiy, Do Han Kim, Lev Klibanov, Yury Koshtyal, A. Outi I. Krause, Jakob Kuhs, Irina Kärkkänen, Marja-Leena Kääriäinen, Tommi Kääriäinen, Luca Lamagna, Adam A. Łapicki, Markku Leskelä, Harri Lipsanen, Jussi Lyytinen, Anatoly Malkov, Anatoly Malygin, Abdelkader Mennad, Christian Militzer, Jyrki Molarius, Małgorzata Norek, Çağla Özgit-Akgün, Mikhail Panov, Henrik Pedersen, Fabien Piallat, Georgi Popov, Riikka L. Puurunen, Geert Rampelberg, Robin H. A. Ras, Erwan Rauwel, Fred Roozeboom, Timo Sajavaara, Hossein Salami, Hele Savin, Nathanaelle Schneider, Thomas E. Seidel, Jonas Sundqvist, Dmitry B. Suyatin, Tobias Törndahl, J. Ruud van Ommen, Claudia Wiemer, Oili M. E. Ylivaara, Oksana Yurkevich
• Citation: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A 35 (2017) 010801 (13 pages). 
• Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.4971389.

The main content of the article is the recommended reading list of 22 early ALD publications, created through open voting among the VPHA participants. For each publication, the reference list contains the full author list and the title in English, translated from the original language when necessary. The usual practice of JVSTA would have been to shorten the author list to "et al." from a certain number of author and NOT include the titles; we are grateful for the JVSTA editors for making exceptions and allowing us to expand the article for a complete historical record (you can find our article correspondence here). The article's Introduction contains a description of how VPHA started and notations on some ALD history activities preceeding it.

Hopefully, this article will stimulate people to read some of the original early ALD publications. VPHA is still open for new volunteers to join and to share comments on early ALD publications in the ALD-history-evolving-file--- >300 did not make it to the shortlist of the article. If you would like to volunteer, please contact us through  info@ vph-ald.com (delete the space).

Many people have helped VPHA to progress in some way. While we have tried to declare all major contributions in the (longish) Acknowledgement, in addition to those mentioned, numerous people have helped VPHA to progress in various ways. We are grateful for everyone's help, big and small, in the past and in the future: all of it matters.

The article is published with Open Access (license: CC BY 4.0) and can be freely used e.g. for teaching.  The abstract and acknowledgements from the article are copied below for easy reference.

VPHA correspondence: JVSTA article: 2nd proofs

The email below was sent to 76 VPHA contributors. 

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 8. joulukuuta 2016 21:54
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas
Subject: VPHA JVSTA article: 2nd proofs

Dear VPHA contributors,

I am happy to tell that upon request, I have received 2nd proofs from AIP of the VPHA JVSTA article. The proofs are sent attached for everyone’s attention. Please note that further new changes are not possible; this is just to double-check that the previous corrections are all made correctly.

VPHA correspondence: JVSTA article proofs returned

 The email below was sent to 76 VPHA contributors.

_____________________________________________
From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 3. joulukuuta 2016 22:20
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Jonas Sundqvist; Puurunen Riikka
Subject: JVSTA VPHA article proofs returned Dec 3

Dear VPHA contributors,

I have just returned the proofs of the VPHA JVSTA article, please find a copy of the submitted file attached. I think that all issues were solved, except for the request to find many DOIs – these probably don’t exist for the publications in question. Thank you for all who helped with the changes.

VPHA correspondence: JVSTA article proofs corrections

 The email below was sent to 76 recipients.

_____________________________________________
From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 2. joulukuuta 2016 13:46
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas
Subject: JVSTA VPHA article proofs corrections - pls respond ASAP (DL Sat 18:00 TUC + 2h)
Importance: High

Dear VPHA contributors,

I am happy to tell you that we are so far that we have received the proofs of the JVSTA article have arrived. Please find attached the proofs as well as the instructions received by AIP for correcting the proofs and the copyedited manuscript. 

Some notes of major progress which has occurred since the submitted version:

• The editorial staff has placed our manuscript in the category of “review articles”. (We have let the journal decide what is the correct category of the article, see the Cover Letter here.)
• The titles of the cited articles are included in English, as we have requested (translated by the VPHA group, when necessary).  
• The article will be published with Open Access (Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence).

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

ALD info in Japan sought

The previous post on the ACSI-conference series brings me back to Japan and ALD. The topic fits Wikipedia having an Asian month in November.)

My feeling is that we are still missing a lot of information of Japanese ALD works in VPHA. (This feeling is based on the information reported in the "ALE essay" and the VPHA manuscript in JVSTA, in press as of Nov 26, 2016.) For example: currently, we have in total 330 PhD-equivalent academic theses listed related to ALD worldwide (see VPHA-ALD-thesis-list). The picture below shows the distribution of theses per country. There are currently none listed from Japan, while I am sure there many academic theses that should be listed. How to get information on them?

The number of PhD-equivalent theses on ALD per country, as listed in VPHA-ALD-thesis-list as of November 26, 2016.

ACSI ALD conference info sought

Some weeks ago, being an opponent in a PhD thesis defence, I had the pleasure to visit professors Tuula and Tapani Pakkanen at the University of Eastern Finland. Many in VPHA may remember Tapani Pakkanen as the person who started quantum chemical calculations on ALD in the early 1980s.

Among other things, we discussed the VPHA ALD history activities. One thing that I learned from the Pakkanens is that in the early 1990s, an ALD conference has been organized in Joensuu, Finland, called ACSI-2. This conference was missing from the VPHA-ALD-conference-list and has since then been added. The full conference name was "Second International Symposium on Atomically Controlled Surfaces and Interfaces". Proceedings were published in Applied Surface Science 75 (1994) 1-363. As this was "ACSI-2", it is obvious that an "ACSI-1" and probably at least "ACSI-3" (and maybe more?) has been organized.

Tuomo Suntola and Riikka Puurunen at Micronova, Espoo, Finland, November 25, 2016. Photo by Mikko Utriainen. 

Yesterday, on November the 25th, Dr. Tuomo Suntola visited VTT Micronova (see the photo). Suntola confirmed that the ACSI conference series was organized around the topic of ALD---which was of course not called ALD at that time. Suntola told furthermore that the ACSI conferences were organized largely on the initiative of Prof. Jun-ichi Nishizawa from Japan (biographical article here), and that at least one of the conferences has been organized in Sendai, Japan.

ALDpulse.com announces to stop

According to announcement published by ALD Pulse in Facebook, 25.11.2016, aldpulse.com stops with ALD-activities and thereby becomes part of the colourful history of atomic layer deposition (ALD).

ALDpulse.com became active in Spring 2013. As seen from the screen capture, their vision was to become the Home of the ALD community and collect together varied information regarding ALD: ALD Basics, ALD Equipment suppliers, ALD Chemical suppliers, ALD Coating services, ALD-related equipment, and many other. A description of aldpulse.com was included in the FinALD40 exhibition material, accessible through aldcoe.fi website as well as vph-ald.com.

Screen capture from aldpulse.com on Nov 26, 2016.

The information in the ALD Hall Fame in part triggered the VPHA activities (described in VPHA's article, in press in JVSTA as of Nov 26, 2016). The founder of aldpulse.com Annina Titoff helped VPHA to get started by publishing the original "Introduction and invitation to participate" and several announcements thereafter.

I personally would like to thank aldpulse.com for its contribution to the ALD community. Their most memorable part from my viewpoint will be the original Youtube interviews produced by aldpulse, e.g. of Suntola, Sundqvist, Barry, Ahonen and Ritala. I very much hope that this material will stay in Youtube after aldpulse.com stops.

The best of luck wished for the ALD Pulse Team in their new endeavours!

Early ALD publications with two VPHA comments

Previous post reported early ALD publications with one VPHA comment in ALD-history-evolving-file, according to info collected in the VPHA-reading-overview-file. This post lists the publications which have two comments, and still would preferably need one comment.

There are 71 publications currently with two comments. Most of the publications are in Russian, while some works remain in German, English, and Finnish, too.

Early ALD publications with one VPHA comment

Previous post reported early ALD publications with no VPHA comments yet in ALD-history-evolving-file, according to info collected in the VPHA-reading-overview-file. This post lists the publications which have one comment, and still would preferably need two comments.

There are 103 of publications with just one comment. Over 90% of the publications are in Russian. The list contains also some items in Bulgarian, English, Finnish, German, and Japanese.  

Early ALD publications with no VPHA comments yet

The VPHA reading & commenting in ALD-history-evolving-file has progressed so that the work is 76% done, according to the info collected in the VPHA-reading-overview-file.

There are still five publications without any comments and they are listed in the following table. Two are in Russian and one in Bulgarian. Regarding two, were we have not been able to confirm the reference info from a copy.

Travel notes: 63rd AVS symposium, Nashville

The AVS 63rd International Symposium and Exhibition was organized November 6-11, 2016, in Nashville, Tennessee, USA (symposium website: https://www.avs.org/symposium). I had the pleasure to attend the conference to present a scientific talk on the analysis of ALD/CVD process characteristics using VTT’s recently developed conformality test structures.

My name badge at AVS 63rd Symposium. "Press" stands for ALD History Blog.

This was my first time at an AVS Symposium. Earlier, I have published in the ALD History Blog travel notes from meetings such as ALD Russia 2015 Moscow, Baltic ALD 2015 Tartu, St. Petersburg visit November 2015, HERALD Helsinki meeting May 2016, ALD 2016 Dublin, and Baltic ALD 2016 St. Petersburg. The travel reports are written in the style of photojournalism, from the viewpoint of the on-going Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA). As many of the VPHA volunteers are potential attendants of future AVS symposia, I wanted to write travel notes also from this event, although I did not expect much progress related to the ALD history activities. As it turned out, the event was also interesting from the point of view of the VPHA.

VPHA communication: JVSTA article accepted for publication

The email below was sent to 76 VPHA co-authors and 39 prospective co-authors.

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 16. marraskuuta 2016 14:36
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas
Subject: VPHA's JVSTA article accepted for publication

Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

It is my pleasure to inform you that our article “Recommended reading list of early publications on Atomic Layer Deposition-outcome of the Virtual Project on the History of ALD”, has been accepted for publication in Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A (see the JVSTA’s editor-in-chief’s email below). The article was written expanding on the contents of VPHA’s poster at the ALD 2016 conference (travel report here). Attached is the final accepted version for everyone’s reference.

Cover letter JVSTA re-submission

The cover letter of the VPHA JVSTA manuscript re-submission (minor revision) was as follows.

--- copy of cover letter begins ---

Nashville, Tennessee, USA, November 9, 2016

Dear Editor of JVSTA,

Thank you for the referee comments and your decision “MINOR REVISION” (November 8, 2016) considering our manuscript <code removed> entitled  ”Recommended reading list of early publications on Atomic Layer Deposition—outcome of the Virtual Project on the History of ALD” by Ahvenniemi et al. (in total 62 co-authors).

Referee 1 finds the manuscript interesting and a step forward, agrees that the work should be published, and judges the quality of writing to be at a very high level (9/10). However, the referee finds the manuscript unsuitable for publication in JVSTA, because “the manuscript as written does not fulfil the expectations for a technical review article”. The referee makes many suggestions towards expanding the manuscript to a full technical review.

Referee 2 finds the manuscript novel (8/10), of the highest possible impact (10/10) and excellently written (10/10). Quoting the referee’s words: “The authors have a done a tremendous amount of work for this manuscript and I personally think the community will greatly appreciate that.” The referee suggest the publication basically as is, after the correction of a few minor typographical errors.

VPHA communication: JVSTA article with minor revision submitted 9.11.2016

The email below was sent to 76 VPHA contributors. (Email sent 9.11. Nashville time, while the time log shows the Finnish time and accordingly shows date as 10.11.)

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 10. marraskuuta 2016 4:46
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas
Subject: VPHA JVSTA article with minor revision submitted

Dear VPHA contributors,

We have yesterday received positive referee/editor comments regarding our manuscript “Recommended reading list of early publications on Atomic Layer Deposition-outcome of the Virtual Project on the History of ALD”. You can read the referee comments in full below.

The editor’s decision was that (very) minor revision is needed. The need for revision being so small, we have created and I have a moment ago submitted a revised version (revision: a few missing spaces added).

VPHA status update 2016-10-30

The email below was sent to 75 VPHA co-authors and 38 prospective co-authors. 

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 30. lokakuuta 2016 17:26
To: info@ vph-ald.com
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas
Subject: VPHA status update 30.10.2016

Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

With this update, I would like to give an overview of the recent and future activities of the Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA). The previous update was made on August 15, 2016, and this status update reviews the progress since then.  Read more below on the following topics:

• Status of VPHA JVSTA manuscript
• Organizational VPHA presentation at Baltic ALD 2016, St. Petersburg
• ALD-history-evolving-file: reading and commenting status
• New hashtags in Twitter related to ALD’s history
• ALD History Blog one year old
• ALD History Blog posts on other topics
• Next steps 

One year of ALD History Blog: statistics shared

Updated 28.10.2016
ALD History Blog was created on October 25, 2015 (it went public on Oct 28). I have shared statistics after 1 month, three months and half a year. This post completes the series and presents statistics after one year of the blog. A recent post was also written of the learnings related to having the blog. Here are some key numbers:

• In total 149 posts have been published before this post. Thus, there have been on average almost three posts per week. 
• The total number of views is above 16 100, giving about 44 views per day on average.   
• Most popular posts, 
• last 7 days: "Term "growth per cycle" (GPC) gaining wider use"
• last 30 days: "Baltic ALD 2016, St. Petersburg: travel notes by Puurunen"
• all times: "ALD 2016: Travel notes"
• Most pageviews, 
• last month: United States > Finland > Japan > France
• all times: United States > Finland > Russia > France
• Most important referring sites: LinkedIn, Twitter, Google 

Then, to the screen captures showing the statistics.  --- I am especially happy of the attention from Japan in the last months. This is because we are still perfecting VPHA's list of early ALD publications up to 1986, and I suspect that we are missing several Japanese publications by Jun-ichi Nishizawa and collaborators. We would need Japanese volunteer(s) in VPHA to get all those works included in the worldwide lists. Those interested to participate in VPHA can contact info@ vph-ald.com (delete the space).

One year of ALD History Blog: some learnings

One year ago, I became a blogger: ALD History Blog was created on October 25, 2015 (it went public on October 28).

ALD History Blog was created predominantly to help in the coordination of the Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA). Before the blog, I used email for coordination and additionally published short notes in Twitter (as @rlpuu) and in the LinkedIn ALD History group. Clear benefits of a blog are e.g. the wealth of contents that can be included (e.g., length of post, links, pictures, videos, ...) and the unlimited internet access/search engine visibility.

Blogging - similarly as the coordination of the VPHA - has brought along many new experiences and learnings. A year after starting the blog, I thought it would be a good idea to summarise the main learnings, to help others who might consider starting a topical science blog.

VPHA Baltic ALD 2016 presentation: live record in Youtube

Live record of the invited organizational end presentation of Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA) at the 14th International Baltic Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition "Baltic ALD 2016" in St. Petersburg, October 3, 2016, has now been uploaded in Youtube. The presentation is entitled "On the history of ALD and the VPHA project," has six co-authors and was delivered by the voluntary coordinator of VPHA, Dr. Riikka Puurunen from VTT, Finland.

Screen capture from Youtube video https://youtu.be/DIArUktQ8xs by Riikka Puurunen. 

Related links:

New Twitter hashtag: #ALDepQuote

After creating the hashtag #suntolaquote, it soon occurred to me that a general ALD-related hashtag for memorable words of all people and all times could be useful, too. Namely, during the VPHA ALD history project, I have heard from many people around the world things worth remembering, and other people will have encountered other memorable things.

To collect together famous (-to-be) ALD-related words, I yesteday created a new hashtag, #ALDepquote - feel free to join and use in Twitter.  

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

New Twitter hashtag: #suntolaquote

Dr. Tuomo Suntola, the Finnish inventor of atomic layer deposition (ALD), has said many things worthwhile to remember.

About a year ago, I wrote how scientific aphorisms are collected in Finland. Now, I realized that Twitter is an excellent place to remember and spread powerful words by powerful persons. Even better: they can easily be collected together by a common hashtag. Feel free to join and share in Twitter words to remember by Suntola, using the just-created hashtag: #suntolaquote.  

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

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 communication: Baltic ALD 2016 presentation & travel report

The email below was sent to 73 VPHA co-authors and 38 prospective co-authors.  

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 9. lokakuuta 2016 12:03
To: info@ vph-ald.com <space added>
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas
Subject: VPHA: Baltic ALD 2016 presentation & travel report

Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

Last week, the 14th International Baltic Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition was organized in St. Petersburg, Russia (http://www.bald2016.ru/). Similarly as for some earlier ALD conferences, I wrote a travel report from the conference: http://aldhistory.blogspot.fi/2016/10/balticald2016-stpetersburg-travel-notes-puurunen.html. The earlier travel reports (and this one, too) you find from this link.   

I had the honour to give the first invited talk of the Baltic ALD 2016 conference. This is - of course - thanks to the Virtual Project on the History of ALD (VPHA), which we have been collectively working on since July 2013. Link to the VPHA presentation slides: http://vph-ald.com/VPHApublications/VPHA-Puurunen-etal_FINAL_2016-10-03.pdf. Additionally, I had a presentation about conformality investigations of ALD thin films with recently-developed microscopic lateral high-aspect-ratio (LHAR) test structures (more info here and here).

Baltic ALD 2016, St. Petersburg: travel notes by Puurunen

Updated October 9, 2016

The 14th International Baltic Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition (Baltic ALD 2016, http://www.bald2016.ru/) was organized in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 3-4, 2016.

The conference consisted of one day of invited lectures and one day of contributed talks and posters. The conference venue was Solo Sokos Hotel Palace Bridge (V.o. Birzhevoi Pereulok 2-4, St. Petersburg, 199004) on the Vasilievsky Island. A get-together event was organized on October 2, 2016. The conference chairman was Prof. Vladimir Kutuzov, the rector of St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University"LETI" and the chairman of the International Advisory Board was Prof. Markku Leskelä from the University of Helsinki. Central local organizers were Prof. Nikolay Egorov and Prof. Alexey Ivanov from LETI. Roughly forty persons participated at the conference. I (Riikka Puurunen) had the pleasure to participate at BALD 2016 both as an invited speaker and as a regular contributor. This was the third time that I participated at a Baltic ALD conference; earlier, I have attended the Baltic ALD of 2014 in Helsinki and of 2015 in Tartu (travel report).

Cover letter JVSTA submission

The cover letter of the VPHA JVSTA manuscript submission was as follows.

--- copy of cover letter begins ---

Espoo, Finland, September 30, 2016

Dear Editor of JVSTA,

Please find enclosed a manuscript entitled ”Recommended reading list of early publications on Atomic Layer Deposition—outcome of the Virtual Project on the History of ALD” by Ahvenniemi et al. (in total 62 co-authors).

The manuscript deals with the history of ALD, extending the information shared on early ALD works in a poster presentation at the ALD 2016 conference, Ireland this summer. The manuscript is quite unusual in its contents and its long alphabetical author list. The author list is a result of the large, collaborative project in which the work has been made.  While we have had no formal request to write this manuscript for JVSTA, informally we have been invited to do so by Prof. Gregory Parsons. 

VPHA communication: JVSTA manuscript submitted 30.9.2016

The email below was sent to 73 VPHA co-authors (of them, 62 are co-authors of the JVSTA manuscript, 11 thanked in acknowledgements). 

---

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 30. syyskuuta 2016 19:24
To: info@ vph-ald.com <space added>
Cc: Sundqvist Jonas; Puurunen Riikka <email changed to name>
Subject: VPHA JVSTA manuscript submitted 30.9.2016

Dear all,

This short email is just to confirm that the manuscript VPHA has been submitted to JVSTA. I expect all 62 co-authors to get an automatic acknowledgement from JVSTA later (I had to enter each co-author manually in the system…). Submission confirmation here: https://twitter.com/rlpuu/status/781771735322419200

VPHA communication: JVSTA manuscript to be submitted today

The email below was sent to 73 VPHA co-authors, before submitting the manuscript to the journal (in the meantime, it has been submitted). Of the VPHA co-authors, 62 chose to be co-authors of the current manuscript and 11 chose to be thanked in the Acknowledgements.   

--- 

From: Puurunen Riikka
Sent: 30. syyskuuta 2016 9:34
To: info@ vph-ald.com <space added>
Cc: Puurunen Riikka; Sundqvist Jonas <email changed to name>
Subject: VPHA JVSTA manuscript to be submitted today

Dear VPHA co-authors,

VPHA’s first joint journal article manuscript has now been finalized and I am about to submit it to the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A (JVSTA). Thank you for all who gave comments in the final check (DL 29.9.). Several minor improvements were still made in this last revision round.

VPHA communication: JVSTA manuscript final check / DL 29.9.

The email below was sent to 73 VPHA co-authors.  

 --- 

Dear VPHA co-authors,

We are now at the last stage of finalizing the VPHA manuscript to JVSTA.

VPHA communication JVSTA art.: 2nd commenting round has ended

The email below was sent to 73 VPHA co-authors.

---  

Dear VPHA co-authors,

The commenting of VPHA’s JVSTA manuscript, 2nd version, has now ended (DL was September 24). Thank you to those who answered VPHA-JVSTA-comments2-part1query and those who made suggestions for improvement in the VPHA-JVSTA-comments2-part2text file. Thank you also to those who provided new comments in the ALD-history-evolving-file.

Below, you find significant information regarding:

• JVSTA article next steps (goal: submit by Sept 30)
• JVSTA article co-author list (12 persons still to confirm)

VPHA correspondence: JVSTA manuscript for commenting (2nd round), DL 24.9.2016

The email below was sent to 72 VPHA co-authors. 

 --- 

Dear VPHA co-authors,

Please find attached the current version of the VPHA manuscript based on the ALD 2016 poster (“recommended reading list”), to be submitted to JVSTA. The manuscript is sent to you as a pdf file.

The manuscript is hereby sent for co-author’s review and commenting. All comments are welcome at this point. Please note, though, that sometimes comments from different people give opposing views, and that not all suggestions can always be included. We ask all contributors for their understanding regarding the different views. Please provide your comments no later than Saturday, September 24, 2016.

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.

VPHA correspondence: JVSTA manuscript with expanded co-author list

The email below was sent to 72 VPHA co-authors. 

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Dear VPHA co-authors,

The first commenting round of our JVSTA manuscript has ended. Thank you for all who gave comments upon it in the shared file <link removed>.

Regarding the next steps, there will be a major change coming in the next manuscript version, of which I would like to inform everyone with this email. The major change is that all co-authors of the ALD-history-evolving-file will by default be included as co-authors of the JVSTA manuscript. One can opt out from the author list of course if one wishes to do so, and be thanked in Acknowledgements. This requires action from everyone: please read carefully this whole e-mail, and especially the paragraph in blue at the bottom.

VPHA communication: JVSTA manuscript authorship double-checking

The email below was sent to 71 VPHA co-authors. 

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Dear VPHA co-authors,

We have started the preparations for the JVSTA special ALD issue article. As agreed earlier, all those who participated in the VPHA voting in June, will be co-authors. (A bit less than half of all VPHA co-authors participated in the VPHA voting.)

It has been manual work to pick out persons for the author list, and there is a chance for human error in this procedure. With this email, I would like to double-check that the author list of the JVSTA article is as it should be.  

VPHA communication: 3rd commenting round to start / DL Sept 23

The email below was sent to 71 current and 35 prospective VPHA co-authors. 

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Dear VPHA co-authors and prospective co-authors,

The VPHA reading is now 68% completed. To get closer to 100%, we have been preparing for a third round of reading. We are finished with selecting papers to read, and distribution of papers will soon start.

As earlier, our goal is to have each early ALD publication red and commented upon by minimum three people. Commenting is done in the ALD-history-evolving-file and bookkeeping in VPHA-reading-overview-file. The number of papers chosen per person varies and is in maximum five. You can view in VPHA-author-info-update file (2^nd tab, “reading-distribution3”), which files have been selected for you.

Twitter: ALD 2017 conference account added to the ALD Glossary

The ALD Glossary page of ALD History Blog has been updated with info of the new Twitter account related to next year's ALD 2017 conference in Denver, Colorado, USA.

ALD conference Twitter accounts: 

• ALD 2014: @ALD_2014
• ALD 2016: @ALD2016_Ireland
• ALD 2017: @AvsALD 

More on #ALDep and Twitter:

• Advice for new Twitter users in a separate post here. 
• Most recent Twitter news is that anyone can ask to verify your account - this feature has earlier been open on invitation only. I have today asked to verify mine - let's see what the answer will be.

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

ALD history reading, once more

We are about to start the third and probably final reading-distribution round in VPHA of early ALD publications. New volunteers are still warmly welcome to join and contribute to the work - at the moment we are with 71 volunteers from 20 countries in 3 continents. Our latest scientific joint outcome was the poster presentation at the ALD 2016 conference.

Would you like to join the VPHA reading, please send an email to info@ vph-ald.com (delete the space) letting us know of your interest and tell us:

• your name & affiliation, 
• email address, 
• languages in which you can read and comment (English + other?),
• your ALD-related speciality.

We collect this info in the VPHA-author-info-update file, 2nd tab, where we also pair people and papers, before distributing papers for reading. Let us agree that we will wait until August 26 to allow new people to join, before we start distributing papers. 

More on the topic:

Beneq Blog on the history of ALD-based electroluminescent displays

Beneq has published a blog post where they very nicely review the history of electoluminescent (EL) flat panel display fabrication. EL flat panel displays were the first large-scale industrial application of ALD; production started in the 1980s and still continues in Olarinluoma, Espoo, Finland. Some process details are also shared in the blog post. At the end of the post, one can request a copy of the interesting presentation of Sami Sneck at the ALD 2016 conference.

Link to Beneq blog: http://beneq.com/blog/201608/ald-in-extreme-conditions.html

More on the topic:

• "A Short History of Atomic Layer Deposition: Tuomo Suntola's Atomic Layer Epitaxy" by R. L. Puurunen, Chemical Vapor Deposition, Vol 20, Year 2014, pages 332-344. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cvde.201402012/abstract  (open access)

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

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.