JAMES BUCKNER, PhD

CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR

Seeking to teach chemistry in a four-year college or a two-year college, after a successful career as an engineer in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

CAREER SUMMARY

• Developed photolithographic processes, implemented and sustained them in semiconductor production.
• Developed metal thin film deposition processes, implemented and sustained them in semiconductor production; characterized silicon surfaces subjected to ion bombardment and annealing.
• Synthesized and characterized PET copolymers and determined the effectiveness of various catalysts.
• Developed tungsten deposition equipment and processes to meet industry-wide manufacturing requirements.
• Managed enterprise-wide internal equipment sourcing, and collaborated in industry-wide environmental, health, and safety assessment.
• Published the results of non-proprietary researches at various times.

PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY

• Developed, implemented, and sustained photolithographic processes to print contact holes and metal lines on logic and DRAM chips down to critical dimensions of 120 nm.
• Boosted productivity by identifying numerous issues and implementing solutions to improve product yield, process capability, process variability, scrap rates, rework rates, cycle time, sampling frequency, and cost.
• Identified sources of variation incoming from previous process steps and drove implementation of solutions.
• Manipulated large data sets to extract sources of process variability on long-tailed distributions.
• Supported the identification of a 20% yield loss involving interactions in the process integration, and implemented the solution.
• Identified a process integration issue causing scrap for alignment rejects and implemented the solution.
• Supported the identification, containment, and circumvention of a resist poisoning issue, leading to 2% yield improvement.
• Drove improvement in overlay C_pk by identifying a line-capture issue in metrology, a matching issue between scanners, and notch-orientation dependence on post-etch biases.
• Reduced scrap by redistributing alignment marks to avoid underlying marks that interfered.
• Improved yield by supporting a robust resist dispense recipe.
• Boosted productivity of contact/via pattern processes by reducing reworks from 15% to 1%, eliminating test wafers, eliminating dummy shots, reducing CD sampling from four wafers to one per lot, reducing alignment sampling from 24 wafers to one per lot, and eliminating a pre-pattern surface treatment. Further reduced CD sampling to once every four lots.
• Reduced pattern loss from backside particles by 90% by identifying the source at a prior process step and introducing a backside scrub.
• Improved yield by solving a persistent problem with gross missing pattern by implementing by-tool focus offset standards.
• Improved yield by implementing by-shot exposure at contact/via levels and created a control system to ensure correct CD’s in each zone.
• Improved yield by driving contact and via SSA optimizations on multiple technology nodes.
• Improved yield by optimizing illumination conditions for side lobe control.
• Characterized focus drilling to improve depth of focus.
• Created a simple test to determine satellite defect performance of photoresists.

SURFACES AND THIN FILMS

• Solved a persistent resist cracking problem by introducing a proprietary process. Received a Manufacturing Incentive Award for it.
• Characterized the physical and electrical damage induced in silicon surfaces exposed to low-energy ion bombardment. (Published in a refereed journal.)
• Demonstrated that depth of damage in silicon and thickness of overlying oxide are measurable simultaneously using ellipsometry. (Published in a refereed journal.)
• Demonstrated that annealing restores optical and electrical properties of silicon damaged by heavy ions but not by light ions. (Published in a refereed journal.)
• Developed theory and wrote software to analyze damaged silicon surfaces using ellipsometry.

POLYMERS

• Synthesized polyethylene terephthalate copolymers in laboratory quantities and determined the effectiveness of various catalysts on the polymerization reaction.
• Developed a fast method to measure copolymerization using Fourier nuclear magnetic resonance.
• Explained the effect of cross-sectional geometry on the wetting forces experienced by a polymer fiber. (Published in a refereed journal.)

EQUIPMENT IMPROVEMENT

• Developed CVD tungsten deposition tools from beta test to full-up manufacturing worthiness. Received award for best equipment improvement project.
• Discovered new sources of particulates in a CVD tungsten tool by designing experiments to amplify deposition of particles on test wafers.
• Discovered an instrument warm-up effect source of variability in film metrology at a supplier site. (Published as a book chapter.)
• Designed a novel gauge study for a Prometrix RS35e metrology tool. (Published as a book chapter.)
• Discovered and accounted for directionality in the uniformity response used to evaluate the CVD tungsten deposition process, resulting in the first successful model of uniformity response for this process. (Published as a book chapter; presented as an invited talk.)
• Solved catastrophic peeling of the titanium nitride underlayer caused by the CVD tungsten deposition process. (Published as a book chapter.)

MANAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION

• Transferred new processes and technologies to and from other wafer fabs. Received award for best technology transfer.
• Avoided $150M of new capital expenditures by creating, implementing, and developing the Equipment Migration Program. Received a company award for it.
• Personally took charge of a factory line-stop situation and delivered a critical product to the customer on time. Received a company award for it.
• Managed the development of a top-down wafer fab cost model under contract with VLSI Research.
• Developed the decision theory used by Texas Instruments to select the equipment purchased for worldwide deployment.
• Provided technical consultation to Raytheon for methodology to evaluate Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS) abatement tools for the semiconductor industry.
• Served on a SEMATECH PTAB (Project Technical Advisory Board) to create a relative risk model for environmental, safety, and health issues related to the semiconductor industry.
• Directly managed one engineer and ten process engineering technicians.
• Created training materials for Spotfire data visualization software and trained engineers to use it.

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION AND ADDITIONAL TRAINING

• Project Management
• Leadership Development
• Theory of Constraints (TOC) from the Goldratt Institute
• Design of Experiments (DOE)
• Taguchi Experimental Design
• Total Preventive Maintenance (TPM)
• Statistical Process Control (SPC)