Materials and Process Systems 2003-2004 Seminar Series

The Materials and Process Systems seminar series is a monthly seminar featuring two 1/2 hr presentations from members of the research groups of Gary Rubloff and Ray Adomaitis. The lunch-tine seminars are held once a month, normally on the second Monday of each month, from 11:30am to 1pm in the ISR Conference room in 2168 A.V. Williams.

Tentative Schedule


Monday, October 13, 2003

Theresa Valentine, Bio-Microfluidics: Fabrication and Sensing
I will discuss current fabrication and packaging efforts in biological microfluidics, with the eventual goal of using these devices for chemical and biological reactions and sensing. I will also discuss our novel scheme for using vacuum-based gas-sensing techniques (mass spectrometry, etc.) to investigate liquid environments -- possibly applicable one day to chem-bio detection.

Jae-Ouk Choo, The Programmable Reactor Project
In the seminar, I would like to talk about the design principles of a new, highly controllable CVD reactor system (the Programmable Reactor) which features a segmented showerhead, reverse flow exhaust, and multizone sampling capabilities. Preliminary experimental results, as well as modeling and simulation of the pilot process will be presented, particularly the prediction of the temperature distribution across the wafer surface. Future experiments will be discussed.

Monday, November 10, 2003

Rinku Parikh, Modeling Gas-Phase Reactions in MOVPE Systems;
Metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) is a leading technique for the growth of gallium nitride based materials. However, this growth is complicated by several intricate gas phase reactions among which is the spontaneous formation of an adduct species. In this talk, we will look at some of the proposed gas phase kinetic pathways and share some preliminary modeling results.
Soon Cho, Sensor-based real-time advanced process control in GaN MOCVD at Northrop Grumman Corp.
I will discuss the recent contributions that real-time in-situ chemical sensing has made in gallium nitride based semiconductor manufacturing at Northrop Grumman Corp. Some of the key results include development of real-time thickness metrology for AlGaN cap layer on the order of 1.5% or 3A, accurate real-time prediction of product material quality (as measured by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, etc.), and implementation of sensor-based contamination control.

Monday, December 22, 2003

Rama Sreenivasan, MEMS-based MFCs;
This talk will focus on:
  1. Microvalves from Redwood micrsystems and their potential use as a compact gas distribution system for the future programmable reactor;
  2. Modeling fluid flow equations through such microvalves;
  3. Flow rate vs pressure drop results from simulations using models for fluid flow through these microvalves;
  4. Future modeling work.

Ray Adomaitis, Next Generation Programmmable Reactor Design;
While the current Programmable Reactor prototype features three individually controllable segments, it is envisioned that future designs will contain tens or more segments. I would like to have an informal discussion on what the next generation segment designs will look like, focusing on developing a modular segment design with built-in flow control elements.