The passage of the CHIPS Act (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) by Congress highlighted the importance of the semiconductor industry in the US.

Numerous gases are used in the production of semiconductor chips, and the accurate metering of these gases into the process chamber is critical for maximizing device throughput and yield. This requires a physical model for the flow meter across different gases (so that a meter calibration carried out with nitrogen can be extrapolated to the process gas) and accurate thermophysical property data for the process gases. Our group maintains a wide variety of experimental apparatus for state-of-the-art property measurements. These include a two-sinker densimeter for reference quality (p, ρ, T) measurements from 200 – 505 K, with pressures to 40 MPa. The speed of sound is a property that yields very powerful data for developing fluid equations of state (EOS), and we have two such instruments for liquid and vapor-phase measurements covering a combined temperature range of 228 – 500 K with pressures to 90 MPa. We will be extending our capabilities and building new instruments to measure the semiconductor gases, many of which are hazardous. These data will then be used to develop property models, and our group also has extensive expertise in the modeling of thermodynamic properties with Helmholtz-energy equations of state and transport property modeling. Our group develops the most accurate state-of-the-art, reference-quality models for both thermodynamic and transport properties that incorporate both our own measurements and literature data. Proposals including both experiment and a theory or modeling component are encouraged.

key words

thermodynamics; fluid properties; experiment; measurement; modeling; semiconductors; CHIPS; gas properties

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants