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- The Colorado School of Mines award is given to its most generous contributors
- Research investigates ways to improve etch selectivity, thermal ALD, and more
Lam Research was honored by the Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colo.) for contributing more than $1 million in academic research funding to the university in the past 10 years.
Lam’s philanthropic contributions,1 guided by Lam’s Etch Product Group and Deposition Product Group (DPG), included the following:
- Approximately $900,000 in donations for research between Lam’s dielectric etch group and Dr. Sumit Agarwal, professor of chemical engineering.
- $75,000 in donations from Office of the CTO (OCTO) for research with Dr. Agarwal as part of three Unlock Ideas projects in 2015 and 2016.
- More than $300,000 in funds from dielectric etch and dielectric deposition groups within Lam for research with Dr. Agarwal under sponsored research or services agreements.
Lam Awarded for Decade of Contributions
The university recently celebrated its 150th anniversary with Mines@150 Visionary awards given to its most generous contributors.
- An engraved “Mines@150 Visionary” plaque installed at the base of the MINES@150 Bell recognizes Lam's contribution and was unveiled during an on-campus ceremony on October 4.
- University president Paul Johnson also thanked Senior VP of Lam’s Global Products Group Sesha Varadarajan in a letter for Lam’s decade of contributions.
- Lam collaborations with Dr. Agarwal supports his work on the synthesis and characterization of solar and electronic materials, including plasma-assisted materials processing to enable the fabrication of next-generation devices.
Projects Continue in Molecular Layer Deposition and Etch
Mingmei Wang, director of engineering in dielectric etch, and her team are currently leading two projects with Professor Agarwal that started in 2017: one on molecular layer deposition (MLD) passivation to improve etch selectivity and one study of halogen chemistry and application of oxide and nitride etch.
Dennis Hausmann, senior technical director and head of the DPG Chemistry Center of Excellence (who recently won a Lam Outstanding Technical Achievement award), led one project with Professor Agarwal from 2016 to 2020 on selective deposition of thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes using inhibitors.
Founded in 1874, Colorado School of Mines offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in mostly engineering, science, and mathematics. In fall 2024, the school had enrolled 6,204 undergraduate and 1,854 graduate students.
Lam Partnerships with U.S. Universities Continue
Lam is continuing to invest in research at leading U.S. universities that result in innovative solutions to numerous challenges facing the semiconductor industry in the AI era.
In addition to research donations and collaborations, Lam is helping train the manufacturing workforce of the future. Lam supports apprenticeship programs for microelectronics students at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College. Silfex, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lam Research located in Ohio, partners with Clark State Community College to develop a 40-hour advanced manufacturing training program.
1 Donation-based research places no restrictions on the faculty. The university can publish results freely and does not have deliverables for Lam. Donation-based research is suited for fundamental and pre-competitive research. Sponsored research is conducted under a legal agreement that typically includes timeline, deliverables, and faculty are restricted from sharing specified information that Lam does not want disclosed.
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