To acknowledge the pioneering work in the field of advanced thermal processing of semiconductors materials, the future RTP Conference Award will be associated with name of Professor James F. Gibbons.
James F. Gibbons was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, and was educated at Northwestern University (B.S., 1953) and Stanford (Ph.D., 1956). He held National Science Foundation and National Academy of Science Fellowships for his graduate studies (1953-1956), and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for Postdoctoral research at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England in 1956-1957.
He joined the Stanford faculty in 1957, was appointed Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1964 and served as the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering from September 1984 to June 1996. He is currently Special Counsel to the President for Industry Relations. In 1983 he was named Reid Weaver Dennis Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford.
His principal research interests are in the fields of semiconductor device analysis, and process physics and technology. Professor Gibbons is frequently honored as a pioneer of several semiconductor processing techniques, including Ion Implantation, CW Laser Annealing, and Limited Reaction Processing. As the leader of the large community of "beam annealers" at Stanford, he has educated many engineers involved today in thermal processing of semiconductors. Among this group, Drs. J. Sturm and J. Hoyt have created major RTP research programs at universities (Princeton and Stanford), and three other students (Drs. A. Gat, T. Stultz and C. Gronet) formed companies that have played a major role in the development and application of Rapid Thermal Processing in the semiconductor industry.
Professor Gibbons was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1971 and a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1974. He has also received the IEEE Jack A Morton Award for "pioneering contribution in the application of Ion Implantation to Solid State Devices" (1980); the Texas Instruments Founder's Prize for "creative concepts in semiconductor device research" (1982); the IEEE Education Medal for outstanding contributions to engineering education (1985); the Electrochemical Society Award in Solid-State Science and Technology for "innovative research and the introduction of novel methods of education" (1989); and the IEEE Electron Devices Society Rappaport Award for best paper published in EDS publications in 1989 (1990). The last two of these awards were based on work in the Gibbons group on the use of RTP for thin film epitaxial growth of SixGe1-x alloys and the applications of those materials in heterostructure devices.
In 1996, he received the Semiconductor Industry Association's University Research Award for many years of leadership in university research in support of the U.S. semiconductor industry, and the American Electronics Association Medal of Achievement Award for accomplishments in the field of technical education, efforts in semiconductor research and active advocacy of technology in educational concerns.
In 1997, he was inducted into the Santa Clara County Business Hall of Fame and the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.
During RTP’94 Conference I quoted from Prof. Gibbons statement which perhaps best illustrates his attitude towards science and society.
"For 40 years or so, Bell Labs had a couple of thousand of the best researchers you could find anywhere, supported by about 0.1 percent of the revenues of the AT&T telephone monopoly and focused on research oriented to the long-term health of the telephone business. That is the combination that you need to invent the transistor and the laser and communication theory and other things. Never mind what anyone says about ‘pure’ research. The probabilities are highest for those who are seeking something."
I am confidant that the Professor Gibbons Award will not only further increase the importance of RTP Conference but will also stimulate future recipients of this prestigious award.
B. Lojek
