Discussions of advanced gate stacks quickly degenerate to an alphabet soup of possible dielectric/metal combinations, with so many variables that it's hard to figure out what, if anything, the author's conclusion actually is. Though slightly dated at this point, this article from the IBM Journal of Research and Development is a nice overview of the obstacles facing device designers.

I had an interesting conversation with Tuan Mai, the director of R&D at Synova. Synova uses a low pressure water jet as a waveguide for their cutting laser. The jet helps control the beam while keeping the workpiece cool and free from debris. These characteristics turn out to be very useful when cutting the metal screens for screen printing of OLEDs.

On an OLED mask, lines can be up to 55 mm long, with a pitch of only 140 microns or so. Heat damage can distort the sidewalls, potentially changing the line pitch.

Synova has delivered three systems for OLED mask manufacturing, and Mai reports that a fourth is planned.

Universities don't need the kind of high intensity marketing effort that companies do, but there's such a thing as being too low key. I live in Massachusetts, but didn't know the MassNanoTech research institute existed until BOC Edwards gave them some equipment.

Applied Materials has decided to get out of the implant business, closing the Applied Implant Technologies group. It's not a shock, really, as they've always been a distant third in that market, behind Varian and Axcelis.

6300 words for February so far, giving me 22,250 for the year. As the number suggests, I've been writing about every other day so far this month.

I've also been adding projects at a pretty rapid clip. That's good, but means I need to pick up the pace a bit.

I feel vindicated. I've always been a fan of afternoon naps; being able to take them is one of the big advantages of being self-employed. Now, it turns out that research in favor of the practice is piling up. The productivity boost may be big enough to make up for the actual time you lose, plus you might live longer.