Semiconductor Process Engineering, PVD, Etch, CVD, PECVD, Ion Implantation, Electrostatic Chuck, Magetic Disk Manufacturing, and Testing, Best Practices, Management

People have
visited my page
since Aug. 2009!

ClusterMaps started
Jan. 1, 2010.

Welcome to Stephen Hyatt's site!

I created this web site to have easy access to my links wherever I happen to be. In addition, I wanted to show the general topics a practicing process engineer refers to at work. Process engineering is a multidisciplinary engineering approach and mindset to solving problems, or meeting new technology requirements. There are no mental boundaries between physics, chemistry, chemical, mechanical, or electrical engineering. For example, if you look at my "Magnetic Disks Manufacturing Process Flow" page you will find that a single process and its accompanying quality control procedures are multidisciplinary. A more readily available process in the literature is that for semiconductors.

The approach I took for these pages is to present a high level view, or the big picture concepts, of topics I chose. I cite references or resources on the appropriate pages. I needed to weigh between fundamental knowledge (things that process engineers should know), what is readily available in the open literature, intellectual property, and judicious use of what might be copyrighted material. Hence, the big picture approach is appropriate for this collection of pages. Think of the topics on these pages as an overview of the practice of process engineering.

The pages are a collection of different topics. For example, on the "Resources" page, you'll find links to other web sites that I typically consult for research and reports. On the "Plasma Processes" page, I survey ideas about characteristics of plasma that a process engineer should know. I created sub-pages in this section on PVD, CVD, PECVD, Ion Implantation, and the electrostatic chuck. I included the electrostatic chuck (ESC) in the Plasma Processes section because the ESC is used in some chambers or reactors. In another page I describe the process flow and testing of magnetic disks used in hard disk drives (HDD). The plasma-based processes are the same as those used in semiconductors and head manufacturing, albeit the number of steps is by far reduced (lithography is not used on hard disks circa 1995). In addition to being familiar with the different manufacturing tools, the process engineer is a problem solver on the manufacturing floor. The following two links are examples of what a process/manufacturing engineer does: Fault Detection: Problem Solving from the Process Perspective, and Keep an eye on wafer defects Inspection vendors strive to catch flaws on ever-smaller devices.

The pages of this web site are dynamic, and I will add topics that fit with the general theme.

Office-Links for Quick Reference

The following are a collection of web sites I use for a quick reference. I call the following sites my office-links. On a different page I list web sites I frequently use for researching topics and preparing reports.