Lam Research is partnering with Oregon State University on research to explore the use of new materials in semiconductor devices. The collaboration includes a $520,000 grant per year for up to five years from Lam Research.
“Lam Research has had numerous collaborations with individual faculty over the years, but this is the first large-scale collaboration with multiple faculty members,” said Dennis Hausmann, senior director of the deposition product group at Lam Research.
John Conley, professor of electrical and computer engineering and principal investigator on the project, has developed relationships with regional companies to collaborate on use-inspired research over three decades. At Oregon State, he has collaborated with several companies including Applied Materials, ASM International, EMD Electronics, HP, Intel, Lam Research, On Semiconductor, Pacific Diabetes, and Sierra Nevada Corporation.
“I have been working with Professor Conley in the atomic layer deposition community for more than a decade,” Hausmann said.
Julie Brandis, executive director for strategic partnerships for the College of Engineering, says the college values the strategic partnership with Lam Research.
“Their engagement across the college is broad, including research, student recruitment, and as a key player in developing the university’s semiconductor sector strategy,” Brandis said.
Oregon State expertise in electronic materials and devices
For this project, Conley assembled a cross-disciplinary team including faculty from electrical engineering, chemical engineering, and physics, combining expertise in materials discovery, deposition, device fabrication, and characterization.
- Conley has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor field, including atomic layer deposition, electrical characterization of devices, device fabrication, and optoelectronic characterization of device interfaces.
- Sieun Chae, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, focuses on using density functional theory calculations with machine learning to screen materials as well as pulsed laser deposition. Her work will help to identify new candidates for depositing via ALD and/or PLD.
- Zhenxing Feng, professor of chemical engineering, applies his background in physics and material science to solve complex problems on multi-disciplinary teams. Key to this project will be his expertise in sophisticated materials characterization techniques.
- Ethan Minot, professor and department head of physics, is an experimental physicist investigating questions related to nanoscale systems such as carbon nanotubes and graphene.
Additionally, Conley brings industry experience. He began his career as a senior scientist for Dynamics Research Corporation and later as a senior member of the technical staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Just prior to coming to Oregon State, he was at Sharp Labs of America for six years, where he rose to lead the novel materials and devices group.
Critical workforce training
Although the potential to advance research in semiconductors is important, Conley says the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to work closely with Lam Research is what he values most about the project. A team of Lam Research directors will meet with each faculty member and their students bi-weekly. The team will also support tours and host seminars.
“The best collaborations I've had with industry are when they are actively involved,” Conley said.
Over the years, Conley has developed a relationship with Lam Research that has led the company to recognize the caliber of student talent at Oregon State. Conley says two of his former students, who earned both bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at Oregon State, are thriving as a process engineer and a senior process engineering manager for Lam Research.
“We are doing world-class research here, and our best undergraduates are as good as any you'd find at top-ranked universities,” Conley said.
Lam Research's campus in Tualatin enables convenient collaboration, and many Oregon State graduates prefer to stay in the Pacific Northwest, making this partnership ideal for workforce development.
“The Tualatin Lam campus employs many OSU graduates and is using this partnership to increase OSU’s presence at Lam and to strengthen the local Oregon research community,” Hausmann said.
If you are interested in collaborating with Oregon State researchers, you can contact faculty directly or email Pooya Tadayon.
