Short course on Atomic Layer Deposition
Location: Eindhoven
Date: April 20, 2017

Gregory N. Parsons

Gregory Parsons is Alcoa Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the State University of New York and a PhD in Physics in at NC State University studying Plasma CVD of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon. In 1990 he began a postdoc at IBM TJ Watson Research Center working on thin film transistor materials for flat panel displays, and joined NC State Chemical Engineering in 1992 as an Assistant Professor to explore surface reactions in thin film materials, including Atomic Layer Deposition. In 2001 he initiated the annual International AVS ALD Conference where he remains in active leadership. He has published more than 200 articles in reaction mechanisms during atomic layer deposition and molecular layer deposition, ALD on polymers and fibers, ALD for metal organic frameworks, reaction system scaling, ALD for energy storage and harvesting, as well as selective area ALD for advanced electronic devices. He was elected Fellow of the American Vacuum Society in 2005, and he served from 2011-2013 on the AVS Board of Directors. He is the recipient of an NSF Career Award, the Alcoa Foundation Distinguished Engineering Research Award, and a Semiconductor Research Corporation Invention Award. He is also an accomplished classroom teacher, being named to NC State’s Academy of Outstanding Teachers in 2009. He is the 2014 recipient of NC State’s RJ Reynolds Award, the College of Engineering’s highest distinction for faculty research, teaching and service. In 2015 he received the ALD Innovation Award, and in 2016 was named to the inaugural class of the NC State Research Leadership Academy.

 

Erwin Kessels

Erwin Kessels is a full professor at the Department of Applied Physics of the Eindhoven University of Technology TU/e (The Netherlands). He is also the scientific director of the NanoLab@TU/e facilities which provides full-service and open-access clean room infrastructure for R&D in nanotechnology. Erwin received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree (with highest honors) in Applied Physics from the TU/e in 1996 and 2000, respectively. His doctoral thesis work was partly carried out at the University of California Santa Barbara and as a postdoc he was affiliated to the Colorado State University and Philipps University in Marburg (Germany). In 2007 the American Vacuum Society awarded him the Peter Mark Memorial Award for "pioneering work in the application and development of in situ plasma and surface diagnostics to achieve a molecular understanding of thin film growth". In recognition of his research, he received a NWO Vici grant in 2010 to set up a large research program on "nanomanufacturing" in order to bridge the gap between nanoscience/nanotechnology and industrial application. His research interests cover the field of synthesis of ultrathin films and nanostructures using methods such as (plasma-enhanced) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) for a wide variety of applications, mostly within the nanoelectronics and photovoltaics domain. Within the field of ALD, he has contributed to the field most prominently by his work on plasma-assisted ALD and his research related to ALD for photovoltaics. He and his team have also been pioneering in the field of area-selective ALD and in spectroscopic techniques for studying ALD surface reactions. Erwin has served on many conference committees in the field of ALD and he chaired the International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition in 2008. He has published over 250 papers with over 150 papers in the field of ALD. The latter includes several book chapters and review papers.

 

Stephen Potts

Stephen Potts is a Chemistry Teaching Fellow at University College London (UCL, UK) with a focus on e-learning techniques. He graduated from UCL with an MSci degree in Chemistry in 2005. He stayed at UCL to undertake a PhD in materials chemistry, during which he designed and synthesised a variety of novel imido-, cyclopentadienyl- and guanidinate-based precursors for chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes to tungsten and zirconium (carbo)nitride films. In 2008, he began a postdoctoral position at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Plasma & Materials Processing group. He focused on the testing of new metalorganic precursors to oxide, nitride and metallic films and the development of low-temperature (<150 °C) ALD processes suitable for temperature-sensitive substrates and corrosion protection. During his time in Eindhoven, he was the winner of the Electrochemical Society’s Norman Hackerman Young Author of the Year Award (2010) for his article "Low Temperature Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Metal Oxide Thin Films". In 2013, Stephen returned to the UK to focus on teaching matters as a Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry (Teaching & Scholarship) at Queen Mary University of London. He was responsible for teaching undergraduate chemistry courses from foundation up to third year level, with a particular focus on transition metal coordination chemistry. His teaching research involved the introduction of tablets to first-year undergraduates and development of the lab skills acquisition record. His efforts were recognised in 2016, when students voted him "Teacher of the Year" at the Queen Mary Student Union awards. At UCL, aside from undergraduate teaching, Stephen’s role has a particular focus on e-learning methods for enhancing the student (and staff) experience, although he can always spare time for ALD and precursor-related matters.

Harm Knoops

Harm Knoops is a Technical Sales Specialist (ALD) for Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) and holds a part-time researcher position at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Prior to joining OIPT in the beginning of 2014, he spent several years in post-doc positions related to plasma processing, solar cells and ALD. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2011 titled: "Atomic Layer Deposition: From Reaction Mechanisms to 3D-integrated Micro-batteries". Besides developing several ALD processes for nanostructured Li-ion batteries, fundamental insights into the underlying growth mechanisms were obtained which was essential for designing the processes and material properties to order. The possibility of conformal deposition by plasma-assisted ALD, a longstanding issue in the field, was resolved by theoretical simulations. In a work visit to Argonne National Labs, USA a similar issue in the field was resolved for ozone-based ALD by identifying loss processes as the cause of several industrially-relevant problems. During his postdocs, the research focused on plasma-deposited ZnO for CIGS solar cells. He supervised a small group of MSc and PhD students involved in ZnO-related projects, where a deeper understanding of electron scattering mechanisms in ZnO was obtained. After his postdoc and while working both at OIPT and TU/e he has focused on advancing the deposition and understanding in the ALD of nitrides which led to improvement of silicon nitride ALD and the understanding of redeposition effects in plasma ALD. Harm spends 10-20% of his time abroad in his current position for OIPT where he visits research groups, high-tech companies, international conferences and workshops. Harm has 34 published papers in peer-reviewed journals.