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 educating type was participating and extremely efficient,” Rudra says. “It made me genuinely fall in love with the topic. The mix of hands-on lab experiments and deep theoretical studying lastly gave me readability that this was the sector I wished to pursue.”
Kamal Rudra
Employer:
IBM Analysis in Albany, N.Y.
Title:
Analysis and growth 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 growth integration engineer at IBM Analysis in Albany, N.Y.
The strategy makes use of the self-aligned litho-etch litho-etch approach to create copper wiring buildings for back-end-of-line (BEOL) built-in circuits at a pitch of 21 to 23 nanometers. The approach is used for gate-all-around transistors, which comprise nanosheets: skinny, stacked layers of silicon which might be surrounded by the gate’s electrode. Nanosheets improve management over present circulate, cut back leakage, and allow increased transistor density, based on IBM.
The fabrication mission is a joint initiative between IBM Analysis and Rapidus, a Japanese semiconductor producer headquartered in Tokyo.
“Nanosheet transistors are paving the way in which for quicker and more-energy-efficient processors for AI and different makes use of,” Rudra says. “By bettering the BEOL interconnects, RC delay and electromigration could be diminished, guaranteeing transistor-level positive factors translate into system-level efficiency.”
For his work, he was acknowledged final yr on the IEEE Pc Society’s High 30 Early Profession Professionals in Computing record and acquired US $2,500.
The Pc Society recognition “reinforces my perception that I’m shifting in the best path,” Rudra says, “and it encourages me to maintain pushing the boundaries of what’s doable in semiconductor expertise and computing.”
Impressed by a physics trainer
Like many engineers, Rudra was fascinated by how issues labored as a teen. Rising up in India, he would take aside remote-controlled automobiles 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 at all times felt “fully pure.”
His fascination with STEM topics deepened in highschool, and his lecturers fueled his ardour. But it surely was M.R. Shenoy, a physics professor on the Indian Institute of Know-how, Delhi, who impressed him to pursue analysis within the semiconductor subject.
As an undergraduate on the Motilal Nehru Nationwide Institute of Know-how, in Allahabad, India, Rudra took a web-based semiconductor optoelectronics certification course provided 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 expertise (BHU), Varanasi; the Indian Institute of Know-how, Kharagpur; and the Central Electronics Engineering Analysis Institute.
“These internships had 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 skinny movie of manganese vanadium oxide utilizing the epitaxy course of. The strategy grows the manganese vanadium oxide on high of the crystal substrate—which provides engineers extra management over the movie’s thickness, composition, and crystal construction, based on Photonics Media. Rudra used the movie to develop a photodetector for infrared gentle.
After a yr 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 noticed that hardware-focused work was certainly occurring 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 boost the yield of the corporate’s FinFET chips, that are utilized in automotive expertise, smartphones, and good audio system. In typical planar transistors, the gate sits atop a flat silicon channel, controlling the circulate of present between the supply and drain from just one facet. As transistors shrank in dimension, nevertheless, they grew to become much less dependable and leaked present, losing energy. FinFET growth was led by Chenming Hu, who acquired the 2020 IEEE Medal of Honor for the invention. FinFET’s 3D construction supplies 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 pc engineering on the College of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
“I selected this faculty as a result of there was a selected professor engaged on LED units whose analysis actually resonated with me,” he says. The professor, IEEE Fellow Zetian Mi, was engaged on III-V semiconductor optoelectronic units. 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 units for AR/VR techniques.
“That have helped me perceive how photonics intersects with semiconductor manufacturing,” he says, “significantly in rising purposes 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 totally different processes have an effect on {the electrical} efficiency and yield of FinFETs.
After a yr, he left to hitch IBM Analysis.
“It’s been probably the most fulfilling choices of my profession to date,” he says. “Being a part of such a high-impact, globally collaborative initiative has been a improbable expertise and one which continues to push me technically and professionally.”
Since working on the firm, he has filed 22 U.S. patents.
He acquired a slew of honors final yr, together with being named to Semicon West’s 20 Underneath 30 record, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’s 30 Underneath 30, and Semicon Europa’s 20 Underneath 30. Just lately, he made the Albany Enterprise Overview 40 Underneath 40 record.
“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 necessary connections at IEEE
Rudra joined IEEE in 2020 after his “Seen Gentle Response in Defect Engineered Wrinkle Community Nanostructured ZnO” analysis paper was accepted by the IEEE Electron Units Know-how and Manufacturing Convention. He continues to resume his membership, he says, due to the networking alternatives it supplies, in addition to technical content material that helps him keep updated on semiconductors.
Along with the IEEE Pc Society, he’s an energetic member of the IEEE Electron Units (EDS), Electronics Packaging, and Photonics societies. Every “is house to a vibrant community of engineers, scientists, and innovators who’re achieved of their respective fields,” Rudra says.
In 2022 he acquired an Electron Units Society grasp’s fellowship, which awarded him $2,000 to make use of towards analysis inside the society’s fields of curiosity. Receiving the consideration, he says, was a strong motivator.
He’s energetic with IEEE Younger Professionals and is a member of the Electron Units Society’s YP committee. Being part of the neighborhood, he says, provides him entry to world-class experience and supplies sources to assist him make profession choices and resolve technical challenges.
He’s additionally part of the organizing committee for this yr’s IEEE EDS Summer time Faculty, a two-day lecture program for college seniors, graduate college students, postdoctoral fellows, and younger 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 means few organizations can supply.”
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