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The Microchip Master's
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Hynix mentor and MSI alumnus Rob Danner (right) with interns Michael Gonzales and Shaun Swartz.
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Thinking small is big business these days. Manufacturers compete to make electronic devices smaller, lighter, faster. Think they couldn't possibly get any smaller? Any better? Any cheaper? The Materials Science Institute (MSI) has provided chemistry and physics students with the equipment, environment, and knowledge to experiment and, possibly, revolutionize our computer technologies since 1985. Now, they are also providing them with industrial research opportunities through the internship master's program.
The "microchip master's" and the expansion of the institute's research have been synergistic, says MSI faculty member in chemistry David Johnson. "In the six years since we started the program, MSI's research funding has more than tripled."
"We started this degree because we perceived that there was something missing between the bachelor's degree and the Ph.D., which the traditional master's did not really serve," says physics department head Dietrich Belitz. Alumni and industry partners continually underscored the need for more specific professional preparation, so faculty members in physics and chemistry began the discussion of how to incorporate targeted technical training into the curriculum, soliciting input from Hynix and Hewlett-Packard along the way.
"Good students coming out of universities with B.S. degrees in physics or chemistry are very good at general problem solving in those fields, but do not have the specialized knowledge needed to work in the industrial environment on specific technologies," says MSI director David Cohen. Intensive summer courses in the MSI program provide the specialized knowledge, technical vocabulary, and hands-on training that are specific to jobs in semiconductor technology or polymer science. "This provides the technical bridge to get them started and is followed with a nine-month internship training at an industrial site."
Being exposed to both chemical and physical processes broadens students' perspectives to the challenges that industries face, says Belitz. Alumna Andrea Sieg, who interned and now works for Intel, says that the extensive training received through the program has given her a better understanding of the entire manufacturing process. "This program gave me the comprehensive theoretical background to be an active participant in several process engineering groups," she says. "I am finding that I am able to move around within the company to continue learning and challenging myself."
Success of UO alumni like Sieg has begun to dispel the perception that the preparation of electronic materials and the fabrication of microelectronic devices are limited to the realm of electrical engineers. Many of the material fabrication processes rely heavily on chemical methods, and trained chemists and physicists are in high demand in the "Silicon Forest." UO graduate students in physics and chemistry have applied their semiconductor research skills for several Northwest industry partners, including Hewlett- Packard, Intel, LSI Logic, and Hynix, among others.
Les Tovey is the internship coordinator for Hynix Semiconductor Manufacturing America, which maintains one of the largest fabs in the world. "When our affiliation with the UO began," says Tovey "I was pleasantly surprised to discover this source of technical knowledge so close to the plant." Even without an engineering program, the university this year provided his company with seven interns, and six of their current researchers were hired directly from their UO internships.
As a matter of fact, more than 90% of internship master's students are hired directly from the institute.
From the student perspective, the opportunity to receive a job offer is a huge incentive to succeed in the program-and a reason that many apply. In addition to the full-time pay of a bachelor's-level employee, which averages over $36,000 per year, interns appreciate the level of responsibility given to them during their internships. "I worked on the same level as a full-time process engineer, with the full support of my boss," says Sieg.
"Each intern is given some ownership on a process," says Tovey of the internship strategy at Hynix. While each intern is assigned a peer mentor during the program, he or she is eventually expected to be able to lead a team of technical engineers on the manufacturing procedures to which they have been assigned.
During his internship at Hynix in 2000, Michael James was assigned to the project of defect analysis and cost reduction. More specifically, he was to institute a recycling program that would either reuse wafers (the foundation of memory chips) or increase their lifetime. James played with the "recipes" he learned in the classroom and, in the end, came up with a solution that cut the number of wafers by half-and reduced costs by 62%. Not bad for an intern.
Success stories such as this have not gone unnoticed by the UO's industrial partners. Hynix, for example, has recently made an additional investment in the program's future by establishing a $20,000 scholarship fund. Their gift will provide annual scholarships of $2,500 for up to eight students who have demonstrated creative ability, academic merit, and financial need.
Staffing, Diversity and Development Manager Steve Doran notes that-in addition to being an "excellent source of capable and qualified contributors" to the success of Hynix's Eugene facility-the MSI has also offered a diverse group of students, which has been rare in technical fields and continues to be important to his organization. Hynix expects that these scholarship opportunities will encourage even more diversity in the field.
"This program continually improves to address the changing needs of business," Doran says.
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1245 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR • 97403-1245
(541) 346.3950 • FAX (541) 346.3282 • alumnidev@cas.uoregon.edu
Copyright © 2003 University of Oregon
Updated May 6, 2003
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