by Ed Korczynski, Senior Technical Editor, Solid State Technology
Silicon Valley was once the center of the silicon-based IC manufacturing world, and though IC fabs are now located globally the Valley still has momentum as the center of IC R&D. The northern California chapter of the American Vacuum Society still runs regular users groups on important industry topics, and a users group meeting on Mar. 13 featured presentations by IBM and Applied Materials on advanced etch processes for 32nm and 22nm node ICs.