Sematech Names Leaders of Lithography Division
After some four months in limbo, Sematech today announced that it has named the new director and associate director of its lithography division -- Bryan J. Rice and Stefan Wurm, respectively.
Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media -- Semiconductor International, 9/9/2008
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After some four months in limbo, Sematech (Austin, Texas) today announced that it has named the new director and associate director of its lithography division. Bryan J. Rice, an Intel assignee to Sematech, will serve as director; and Stefan Wurm, an Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) assignee, will be associate director, effective immediately. They will be based in Sematech’s R&D Center within the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany, and will be responsible for assuring that Sematech’s strategic direction and its execution support critical lithography technology areas.
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| Bryan J. Rice, Intel |
Sematech’s lithography division has essentially been without a director
for several months, although former director Michael Lercel has been doing what he can for the division in the meantime. In an interview a couple months ago, Lercel noted that he had already started in a new position with IBM, overseeing the company’s semiconductor equipment strategy, but was doing what he could to fill in for Sematech’s lithography division until they were able to find a replacement among assignees from the member chip companies.
The situation arose when Ben Eynon, who had been director of advanced technology development at Samsung and associate director of lithography at Sematech, was set to take over the director position in May. He instead took a position with nanoimprint lithography toolmaker Molecular Imprints Inc. (Austin, Texas) as vice president of marketing and business development for semiconductors, leaving the directorship in question.
Rice is now taking over the lithography director position from Lercel, who has returned full time to IBM. Rice has been on assignment to Sematech from Intel since 2006. Although he was heavily involved in development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography while at Intel, he has since turned more of his efforts toward immersion lithography, serving most recently as immersion lithography program manager at Sematech. He has led Sematech’s high-index immersion research into high-index lens and immersion fluid materials, and has been an outspoken proponent of increased funding for these technologies. He also has been instrumental in forming Sematech’s double-exposure lithography program, focusing on the exploration of novel materials for the litho-litho-etch patterning approach.
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| Stefan Wurm, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) |
Rice holds a doctorate in nuclear physics from Duke University, and a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Wurm, meanwhile, has spoken out against the naysayers of EUV lithography, advocating the technology’s use for future mainstream chip patterning. He most recently served as Sematech’s EUV program manager, and has led the organization’s EUV strategy for more than four years.
Wurm has more than 20 years of industry and R&D experience, and has held positions in technology development at Siemens Semiconductors, Infineon and Qimonda. Wurm recently joined AMD as a principal member of technical staff. He holds a doctorate in physics from the Technische Universität München, Germany.
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I wonder if they would consider a mask magnification increase, like to 8x. They should know...
Fred Chen - 2008-10-9 12:05:00
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