Fighting dust in a research lab where almost everyone smoked – Bits&Chips
10:43 One of Frits Klostermann’s main jobs as the manager of the litho workshop at the Philips Natlab in the 60s was fighting dust. Chip lithography is all about productivity and precision. But there’s also a third, equally important parameter. One that hardly reaches the public eye, but that’s at least as critical to system architects of a wafer scanner: cleanliness. Chip production is a continuous effort to reduce particles. ICs in the making are vulnerable. They spend months in a waferfab before they’re ready. One hit by a single dust particle and the whole chip is wasted. That bat...