Surrey NanoSystems has appointed Duncan Cooper as its Director of Sales and Marketing. With 25 years' experience in semiconductor industry, he brings a wealth of know-how to the young company as its new breed of tools for growing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at low temperatures moves from R&D labs to commercial fabrication.
With start up experience gained in the industrial laser industry and significant experience in semiconductor fabrication tools and materials applications, gained from over a decade with Tokyo Electron and Hoya, this gives Cooper an in-depth understanding of Surrey NanoSystems' prime market: the replacement of copper and low-K dielectric structures in integrated circuits.
"Our new breed of tool addresses the semiconductor process developer's need for stable and repeatable results, providing automated control over all aspects of CNT synthesis from catalyst generation to final material processing", says Duncan Cooper. "We have proven recipes that can be applied to mainstream CMOS semiconductor processes, and I'm confident that 2008 will be the year in which we start to see CNT-based structures move from the lab and into production."
The properties of CNTs can be applied in interconnect, low-k dielectric, and nanowire applications to enhance the performance and integration levels of microelectronic devices. Surrey NanoSystems has developed proprietary processes that allow its tools to repeatably grow precision CNT structures at temperatures compatible with commercial silicon processes.