Stephen Johnston
Steve came to the University of Akron in 1994 after earning his B.S. at
Rochester Institute of Technology. He earned his M.S. in 1996 and took
a job with Advanced Technology Materials Inc.
ATMI provides products and services for the peripherals of semiconductor
IC (Integrated circuits) manufacturing. ATMI is broken into four divisions.
ECOSYS makes wet and dry scrubbers for making process gases non-volatile
and safe. NOVAMOS makes Liquid Delivery Systems, Safe (Gas) Delivery Systems,
and lots of chemicals which are used in Metallo-Organic Chemical Vapor
Deposition. These Metallo-Organics are unstable in the gaseous phase so
ATMI developed a way to keep them as a liquid until they are just about
to hit the wafer surface. ATMI makes delivery systems for getting process
gases from the storage tanks to the wafer surface. They also do research
on various High Dielectric materials. EPITRONICS does research on wide
band-gap materials. NOVACHIP is doing research for possible materials to
be used in SmartCards applications in the near future.
You can view the ATMI website, including a job listings page, at http://www.atmi.com.
Steve says, "I am in NovaChip. It is the newest branch of ATMI (I was
the first person hired!). I run a MOCVD reactor and we are doing research
on HIGH K materials as well as Ferroelectrics. We are in Danbury, CT. about
an hour north of NYC. It'sa lot a nice town with a couple good bars.
"I think the most useful class at the University of Akron was the Advanced
Labs (one and two). I thought they were a great way to get a little bit
of experience in a lot of different scientific measuring techniques. The
IETS and NMR and FTIR and AFM/STM were good things to know when looking
for a job in the semiconductor field (which is hiring at the moment!).
I thought the strength of U of A Physics was the experimental classes.
Grad school (especially a terminal Master's degree program) is the best
place to get experience to look for a job and I thought U of A Physics
has a lot to offer for experimental physics."
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