When a career ends in randomness: my life in the semiconductor industry

[@eepien]

As always, Chris does not dissapoint. Always enjoy listening to your presentations.

[@wolpumba4099]

*Summary* *Introduction and Career Overview* - 0:00: Introduction by Chris Mack, reflecting on his 40-year career in the semiconductor industry as 2023 ends. - 0:35: Shows progression through his career via headshots, with the last one from 2011. - 1:01: Discusses the traditional linear narrative of career bios but contrasts it with his own career's 'random walk'. *Early Career and Education* - 2:01: Begins with addressing common career advice like "Follow Your Passion", questioning its applicability to a non-linear career path. - 3:01: Talks about his education at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, studying physics and chemistry without a clear plan. - 4:12: Mentions a seven-year gap between degrees, leading to a story about dropping out of Caltech and a relationship that didn't work out. *Professional Journey and Shifts* - 5:21: First job at the National Security Agency (NSA) due to an existing top secret clearance, with a focus on lithography starting accidentally. - 7:49: Describes how reading the Dill papers at IBM inspired his career focus in lithography. - 8:31: Develops his lithography simulator, PROLITH, while at NSA and decides to distribute it for free. - 9:33: Leaves NSA in 1989 to start his own company, Finle Technologies, focused on commercializing his lithography software. - 10:14: Earns his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas during his time running Finle Technologies. - 11:59: Sells Finle Technologies to KLA-Tencor in 2000 and shifts focus to data, working there until 2005. *Teaching, Writing, and KZbin Channel* - 12:50: Quits KLA-Tencor in 2005 after the birth of his first child, focusing on his website lithoguru.com and writing, including his textbook "Fundamental Principles of Optical Lithography". - 14:00: Discusses the challenge of writing his textbook on lithography, with technology evolving faster than he could write. - 14:21: Highlights the completion of his textbook as a career milestone. - 14:23: Mentions his other book, "How to Write a Good Scientific Paper," born from his experience as editor-in-chief of a peer-review journal, available for free. - 14:48: Talks about fulfilling his teaching aspirations by teaching part-time at the University of Texas for over 25 years, including guest stints at the University of Notre Dame and University of Canterbury in New Zealand. - 15:24: Describes his adoption of the flipped classroom model for his courses in chemical processes for micro and nanofabrication, and data analysis. - 16:04: Used KZbin to deliver lectures for flipped classrooms, unexpectedly growing his channel to 23,000 subscribers. *Focus on Stochastics and Metrology* - 17:12: Explores his fascination with stochastics, a significant topic in lithography and semiconductor patterning. - 19:13: Describes the challenge of controlling stochastic variations in semiconductor manufacturing, now a dominant source of variation in patterning. - 21:03: Discusses the scaling of stochastic variability and its increasing impact as feature sizes shrink. - 22:01: Talks about the need for new measurement approaches to address stochastics and his invention of a new method to reduce noise in scanning electron microscope images. - 23:46: Founded Fractia, a computational metrology company, combining his expertise in modeling, data, and stochastics. - 24:14: Defines his current role as a metrologist, focusing on the science of measurement. *Reflections and Career Philosophy* - 24:34: Reflects on his career path, emphasizing that it was not planned but a series of prepared responses to random events. - 25:01: Quotes Eisenhower on the importance of planning and Louis Pasteur on chance favoring the prepared mind, relating them to his career philosophy. - 25:37: Advises not just to follow a single passion but to find passion in whatever path one is on, suggesting adaptability and commitment are key. Disclaimer: I used chatgpt4 to summarize the transcript.

[@ndjarnag]

awesome thanks for posting this.

[@srb2259]

Your lectures are hugely underrated. Specifically, your statistics review lecture is just wow! I currently work at KLA. Greatly benefited from your lectures. Thanks a lot for spreading your knowledge :) I see KLA has some great people like you [you may know Eugene :)], I am happy that you were also here at some point. Wishing you all the best.

[@lostcellphone]

Best advice this year

[@nivasa1533]

One of the best videos about career advice

[@abdulrahmanhazem1929]

I currently work at Intel as a Process Engineer and your lectures are truly amazing! I benefited a lot from them especially the EPD Etch Lecture and the Nano-imprint lithography!

[@sajjadhossain3947]

Very encouraging, Dr. Mack. Thank you for the video.

[@Christopher-vy7pm]

Your lectures on semiconductor lithography processes have been resourceful and helped me secured my job. I make reference to them even today. I appreciate your contributions, salute your dedication and want to thank you for making yourself accessible and your lecture materials available.

[@ISHWARSINGH-fc1td]

Love your videos!! Thank you so much for sharing. I am a hardware chemical engineer at IBM with no background in lithography. Your videos and textbook helped me immensely. I'll def say hi if I see you at a conference. Thank you Chris

[@farzanehrasti]

Amazing journey! Thanks for sharing this!

[@freddymelara882]

Absolutely wonderful video Dr. Mack.

[@raylopez99]

Yeah fascinating. He was a late father too, interesting. Good stuff in this video bio. A quick search on Google Patents shows a "Chris Mack" has 32 patents as inventor, not bad.

[@mythmakinglife]

Thanks for the advice and thanks a lot for the best lectures)

[@xwind0731]

Nice talk! great! When I was an lithography process engineer at 1997, I found there seems no clear knowledge information for me to handle this job smartly, but just try error! This job combines diverse knowledge to print pattern from mask to wafer! Your Prolith simulator help me a lot to clarify some at that time! Your advisor “ Not just follow your passion…” is wisdom word to the worker in industry to review his job career! BTW, sometime later, you might find to try Levy walk rather than random walk can see different view in nanometer scale patterning world!

[@ky7OpDfT]

Thanks a lot for the inspiring advice.

[@karieltheone]

Great talk. I always loved your videos lessons, which I found at random when preparing for a technical interview in the Semiconductor industry about 10 years ago. I had immigrated to the US because of a girl, which didn't work either, my background was in Law and Goverment...so the skills did not transfer across borders. I was working at a microchip fab, as an operator because that's where the girl worked. We had a kid on the way and I knew I needed to make more money. The company had a few openings for technicians in the Photo and the Metrology department. I liked hardware and computers, I had an advance degree in my country...that proved I could be trained, or at least that's what I said in the initial interview to wheasel my way into the technical interview. I never attended your lessons in person nor the University of Texas for that matter, but I did get Cambell's book and tried to follow the best I could. One of the best classes I ever "took". I went back to school and got a few hard science related degrees from US accredited schools while working full time. 10 years later, I still work in the industry, helping with research and development. it has been a very random journey...but a good one at that. Destiny is not real, but we are all slaves to causality. Thank you for the indirect and non intended help and mentorship.

[@fotofosforilasi]

you're the og ily

[@DB-xx6gq]

Hey Chris great video. Curious why you skipped your SEMATECH assignment when listing your career highlights. Perhaps I just figured it out. Thanks for your insights and contributions to the industry.