Ultra Large Scale Integrated (ULSI) circuits in microelectronic industry are fabricated by a sequence of chemical processes in which thin films are repetitively deposited and removed in selected regions to form devices such as transistors,  microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and chemical sensors on a silicon chip. As the era of nanotechnology dawns, manufacturing technology with atomic scale precision would undoubtedly change our view of mass production at miniature dimensions.  As chemical engineers have successfully scale-up all chemical processes for mass production, the new challenges center the down-scaling of the chemical processes at atomic scale.  The development and modeling of the deposition and etching processes responsible for such complex structures involves the standard elements of chemical engineering, i.e., transport of reactive gaseous species, gaseous and surface chemical kinetics, and reactor design. My research interests include experimental study and numerical modeling of plasma etching and deposition processes, which are used in over 30% of all the microelectronic unit operations, development of vapor-phase cleaning techniques to replace the conventional liquid processes used in over 30% of all the microelectronic processes, the synthesis of atomic layer deposited inorganic thin films with tailored electronic, chemical, thermal, mechanical, and biological properties, and the development of chemical sensors on a chip.  A few examples of the current research projects are:

Contact information: 

Jane P. Chang
5532-D Boelter Hall, UCLA 
Department Of Chemical Engineering
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Tel: (310) 206-7980
Fax: (310) 206-4107
E-mail: jpchang@ucla.edu