Dear WNF community,
I am pleased to announce that we will be participating in a strategic partnership with ClassOne Technology’s new wet process tool division (formerly Semitool) and embarking on advanced wafer-level electroplating within WNF. Initial focus will be on Through Silicon Via copper plating, but we will also look at solder plating for Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP) and plating of ferromagnetic alloys. To start this partnership, we will have Kevin Witt with us for a few days. He will be giving a special seminar this week. I encourage your attendance.
Title: “A Brief and Incomplete History of Electroplating with a Sneak Peak at the Future”
Speaker: Kevin Witt
Location: Fluke Hall 332
Date: July 31, 2014
Time: 1pm
Abstract:
A 40 minute, quasi-technical, historical review of the technologies that have lead to the modern state of electroplating will be presented. Historical figures and significant inflection points of the development of electrochemistry will be identified in a somewhat whimsical and occasionally sarcastic manner (in the style of James Burke’s “Connections”); ultimately leading to a discussion of how the science of electroplating has been successfully applied to semiconductor and related devices. Current applications will be mentioned along with future opportunities for the burgeoning application of electroplating. Several themed Renaissance paintings and Star Trek references will be included to provide the impression of gravitas and a veneer of respectability.
Biography:
Kevin Witt is the VP of Technology for ClassOne Technology in Kalispell, MT and has 25 years of experience in the semiconductor and related high-tech industries. He was a founder of Zinc Air Inc, a Flow Battery/Energy Storage start-up in 2010, has held the position of Sr. VP of Engineering and Advanced Inquiry Systems, Director of Disruptive Technology at Semitool, Inc. (a group he started in 2006 to focus on enabling technologies for various technology fields), and was a member of the executive team which sold the company to Applied Materials where he worked in the Corporate CTO’s office. Kevin has held global marketing positions at Rodel and Solution Technology, and manufacturing engineering positions at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for logic and memory products which included the planning and start up of high volume production fabs in Texas (1993) and Germany (1997) where he was the lead engineer for CMP (STI, ILD, Tungsten and Copper). He spent a year as an assignee to Sematech for post-CMP Cleans. Prior to returning to graduate school, he worked as a field service engineer at Perkin-Elmer in the analytical instrumentation division. Starting in 1978, he worked as a freelance software developer for educational and scientific applications. Kevin holds an MS degree in Materials Science and Engineering, and a BS in Physics, both from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Best regards,
Dr. Michael Khbeis