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). 

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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.   

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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.  

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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).

ALD thesis list contains 297 entries - which ones are missing?

During the last months, we have in VPHA been collecting a list of ALD theses made worldwide. At ALD 2016, I discussed with many professors and researchers, who agreed to check the theses list what comes to their own labs/universities. To make it easy to spot the missing ones, the number of PhD-equivalent theses per country is collected in the table below, and the thesis list (including also "professor's theses") is shown below, ordered per country.

In March 2016 (post here), there were 274 PhD-equivalent theses listed; now, there are 297. How many would we be missing still? I believe that there are theses missing still at least from USA (the George group, @GeorgeGroupCU), Belgium (IMEC/KU Leuven) and Japan, and probably from other countries/universities, too. The full thesis info can be seen in the VPHA-ALD-thesis-list. When you spot missing info, you can write the additions directly in the file VPHA-thesis-to-be-added.

Advice for new Twitter users

The last weeks have seen increasing activity related to Atomic Layer Deposition in Twitter with the ALD 2016 Ireland conference. Welcome all new ALD tweeters! Anticipating that there will be more individuals and laboratories joining in the near future, here are some tips for beginners from me---I have been an active Twitter for >2 years and have benefited from Twitter in many ways.

(1) When you first sign up for Twitter, you will to choose your unique username - the one starting with @. You can find advice on the internet on how to choose a good one, for example here. ALD scientists have many types of names, for example: @sean_t_barry, @simon_d_elliott, @MikkoRitala, @BMCtheALCHEMIST, @hacp81, @jv3sund, @rlpuu. My advice: choose a username @... that it as short as possible, yet easily recognizable. When someone tweets you, each character of your username will consume of the 140 character limit of a tweet.

New page in ALD History Blog: ALD Glossary

July 30, 2016, a new page has been created in ALD History Blog: ALD glossary: abbreviations and Twitter. While I have been thinking of setting up this page for a long time, the rapidly increasing use of Twitter in the ALD community and the recognition of the "best tweet" at ALD 2016 made the need immediate. The glossary lists (link) are not final but just a start; comments and suggestions for improvements are welcome.

For the Twitter hashtag list, I tried to trace back and describe there the first use of the hashtags. Sometimes, this was easy as the hashtag is uniquely used for ALD (#ALDep, #BalticALD, #FinALD40, ...); sometimes, this is more difficult as the hashtag is in multiple use in Twitter (e.g., #ALD2015, #ALD16, #ALD2016, #VPHA). In Twitter, no-one "owns" a hashtag and anyone can start using whatever they like, also one that is already in use. Twitter is by its nature chaotic; good hashtags are keywords which help to navigate through the chaos.

ALD history at ALD 2016 Ireland

Prof Greg Parsons introducing Prof Anatoly Malygin to give a plenary talk at ALD 2016. Photo by Riikka Puurunen.

The ALD 2016 conference was a major step forward in advancing the understanding of the worldwide history of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Progress took place at least in three ways:

1. Prof. Anatoly Malygin (St. Petersburg State Technological Institute (Technical University)) delivered an invited talk. ALD 2016 was the first time ever that a person representing the branch of ALD of "old Russian works" has presented a talk at the international ALD conferences. Great thanks Prof. Malygin delivering the talk as well as for the conference chairs Dr. Simon Elliott and Dr. Jonas Sundqvist for inviting him.

Early ALD publications with one VPHA comment

Continuing on the post of yesterday, listing early ALD publications with so far no comments in VPHA's ALD-history-evolving-file, here is the list of publications (up to 1986) with just one comment. Many publications in Russian, some in German, English, Bulgarian and Finnish. 

Of course, a question is: have we listed all publications up to 1986? We can never be completely sure; the list is as complete as the co-authors make it. Participants of ALD 2016 and other experts: you are most welcome to join the ALD history reading to help us perfect and complete the work! To join, please contact us at the conference or email info@ vph-ald.com. 

Evolution of the VPHA reading up to July 22, 2016 (total completion status 67%). April-June 2016 saw rapid increase in # comments given due to active coordination.