Martin McBriarty

What kind of scientist are you at Intermolecular^®, and what do you do?

My current focus is atomic layer etching (ALE), which is the careful removal of a material, one layer of atoms at a time, using specialized combinations of chemicals. It’s an exciting new field, and my work includes identifying and testing new ALE chemistries as well as managing our ALE research program.

What is your favorite part about being a scientist, and how did you get interested in science? I’ve always been curious, and being a scientist lets me ask and answer exciting questions every day. As a kid, electronics fascinated me – they seemed like magic, and I wanted to understand how they worked. I also had an early interest in space exploration. I grew up in central Florida, where I would view the start of space shuttle launches on TV, then head outside to watch in awe as the glow from the solid rocket boosters rose into the sky.

How does your work contribute to material innovation for the future of technology? To make the computer chips that will power our future technology demands, we need new ways to sculpt materials into complex nanometer-scale structures. ALE will be a critical tool for this job.

Tell us about a current project you are working on and how this is an example of materials innovation? I’ve been investigating ALE of the metals that electrically tie together the transistors in microprocessors. These transistors are shrinking with every new generation of chips, and reliably connecting them together is a challenge that ALE can help overcome. This is easier said than done: the ALE process has to etch just one material on a complex chip, and it has to leave behind an extremely smooth and clean surface of the etched material. I’m working on finding the right chemistries and physical conditions to meet these challenging requirements.