Kamal Rudra discovered the subject of semiconductors fairly boring when he encountered it in highschool. However that each one modified when he took a university course on semiconductor optoelectronics. He credit the category’s professor with sparking his curiosity within the expertise.
“His instructing model was partaking and extremely efficient,” Rudra says. “It made me genuinely fall in love with the topic. The mixture of hands-on lab experiments and deep theoretical studying lastly gave me readability that this was the sphere I wished to pursue.”
Kamal Rudra
Employer:
IBM Analysis in Albany, N.Y.
Title:
Analysis and improvement integration engineer
Member grade:
Member
Alma maters:
Motilal Nehru Nationwide Institute of Know-how in Allahabad, India; College of Michigan in Ann Arbor
An IEEE member, Rudra is now engaged on a brand new nanosheet chip fabrication course of as a analysis and improvement integration engineer at IBM Research in Albany, N.Y.
The strategy makes use of the self-aligned litho-etch litho-etch approach to create copper wiring constructions for back-end-of-line (BEOL) integrated circuits at a pitch of 21 to 23 nanometers. The approach is used for gate-all-around transistors, which include nanosheets: skinny, stacked layers of silicon which can be surrounded by the gate’s electrode. Nanosheets improve management over present stream, scale back leakage, and allow greater transistor density, in keeping with IBM.
The fabrication venture is a joint initiative between IBM Analysis and Rapidus, a Japanese semiconductor producer headquartered in Tokyo.
“Nanosheet transistors are paving the best way for quicker and more-energy-efficient processors for AI and different makes use of,” Rudra says. “By enhancing the BEOL interconnects, RC delay and electromigration will be lowered, making certain transistor-level positive aspects translate into system-level efficiency.”
For his work, he was acknowledged final 12 months on the IEEE Computer Society’s Top 30 Early Career Professionals in Computing listing and obtained US $2,500.
The Pc Society recognition “reinforces my perception that I’m shifting in the best route,” Rudra says, “and it encourages me to maintain pushing the boundaries of what’s potential in semiconductor expertise and computing.”
Impressed by a physics instructor
Like many engineers, Rudra was fascinated by how issues labored as a teen. Rising up in India, he would take aside remote-controlled vehicles and use the motors and batteries to construct one thing new.
Nobody in his household labored in science, expertise, engineering, or math, he says, however science has all the time felt “utterly pure.”
His fascination with STEM topics deepened in highschool, and his academics fueled his ardour. But it surely was M.R. Shenoy, a physics professor on the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, who impressed him to pursue analysis within the semiconductor subject.
As an undergraduate on the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, in Allahabad, India, Rudra took a web-based semiconductor optoelectronics certification course supplied by NPTEL that was taught by Shenoy.
Motivated to achieve expertise within the subject, from 2017 to 2019 Rudra accomplished a number of internships engaged on semiconductor fabrication at organizations together with the Indian Institute of technology (BHU), Varanasi; the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; and the Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute.
“These internships have been my first actual publicity to experimental analysis and gave me a basis in machine physics and materials science,” he says.
He earned a bachelor’s diploma in electronics and communications engineering from MNNIT in 2019.
Working in fabrication and FinFET
After graduating he grew to become a analysis assistant on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in Bengaluru.
There he developed a thin film of manganese vanadium oxide utilizing the epitaxy course of. The strategy grows the manganese vanadium oxide on high of the crystal substrate—which supplies engineers extra management over the movie’s thickness, composition, and crystal construction, in keeping with Photonics Media. Rudra used the movie to develop a photodetector for infrared light.
After a 12 months he joined semiconductor producer GlobalFoundries, additionally in Bengaluru, as an integration and yield engineer. He continued his work at IISc on the weekends.
“Earlier than becoming a member of, I had modest expectations—largely due to the restricted semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India,” he says. “However I spotted that hardware-focused work was certainly taking place within the trade. That have planted the seed of transitioning from academia to cutting-edge industrial R&D.”
“For any younger skilled in STEM, IEEE isn’t only a useful resource; it’s a launchpad.”
Whereas at GlobalFoundries, he labored on BEOL interconnects to reinforce the yield of the corporate’s FinFET chips, that are utilized in automotive expertise, smartphones, and sensible audio system. In standard planar transistors, the gate sits atop a flat silicon channel, controlling the stream of present between the supply and drain from just one facet. As transistors shrank in measurement, nevertheless, they grew to become less reliable and leaked current, losing energy. FinFET improvement was led by Chenming Hu, who obtained the 2020 IEEE Medal of Honor for the invention. FinFET’s 3D construction offers higher management of the present.
In 2021 Rudra determined to proceed his schooling and was accepted into the grasp’s diploma program in electrical and computer engineering on the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“I selected this faculty as a result of there was a selected professor engaged on LED gadgets whose analysis actually resonated with me,” he says. The professor, IEEE Fellow Zetian Mi, was engaged on III-V semiconductor optoelectronic devices. Rudra was a part of Mi’s analysis workforce for the primary two semesters of his graduate program, engaged on the fabrication and characterization of III-Nitride-based microLEDs. Rudra additionally accomplished an internship at Meta in Redmond, Wash., the place he developed integration processes for waveguide-based photonic gadgets for AR/VR programs.
“That have helped me perceive how photonics intersects with semiconductor manufacturing,” he says, “significantly in rising functions like next-gen shows and wearable optics.”
After incomes his diploma in 2023, he joined Samsung Semiconductor in Austin, Texas, as a tool integration engineer. There he returned to engaged on FinFETs, however this time analyzing and optimizing machine and front-end-of-line integration for 14-nm node expertise and the way completely different processes have an effect on {the electrical} efficiency and yield of FinFETs.
After a 12 months, he left to hitch IBM Research.
“It’s been one of the vital fulfilling choices of my profession to this point,” he says. “Being a part of such a high-impact, globally collaborative initiative has been a implausible expertise and one which continues to push me technically and professionally.”
Since working on the firm, he has filed 22 U.S. patents.
He obtained a slew of honors final 12 months, together with being named to Semicon West’s 20 Underneath 30 listing, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’s 30 Underneath 30, and Semicon Europa’s 20 Underneath 30. Lately, he made the Albany Business Review 40 Underneath 40 listing.
“These recognitions,” he says, “have been deeply motivating—not simply as private milestones however as validation of the collective work I’ve been a part of, and the mentors who’ve helped form my path.”
Making vital connections at IEEE
Rudra joined IEEE in 2020 after his “Visible Light Response in Defect Engineered Wrinkle Network Nanostructured ZnO” analysis paper was accepted by the IEEE Electron Devices Technology and Manufacturing Conference. He continues to resume his membership, he says, due to the networking alternatives it offers, in addition to technical content material that helps him keep updated on semiconductors.
Along with the IEEE Computer Society, he’s an lively member of the IEEE Electron Devices (EDS), Electronics Packaging, and Photonics societies. Every “is residence to a vibrant community of engineers, scientists, and innovators who’re achieved of their respective fields,” Rudra says.
In 2022 he obtained an Electron Devices Society master’s fellowship, which awarded him $2,000 to make use of towards analysis throughout the society’s fields of curiosity. Receiving the distinction, he says, was a strong motivator.
He’s lively with IEEE Young Professionals and is a member of the Electron Devices Society’s YP committee. Being part of the group, he says, provides him entry to world-class experience and offers assets to assist him make profession choices and remedy technical challenges.
He’s additionally part of the organizing committee for this 12 months’s IEEE EDS Summer School, a two-day lecture program for college seniors, graduate college students, postdoctoral fellows, and young professionals.
“For any younger skilled in STEM, I imagine IEEE isn’t only a useful resource; it’s a launchpad,” Rudra says. “Getting concerned early helps you develop technically, professionally, and personally in a manner few organizations can supply.”
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