It was extremely unusual for a start-up company to pursue innovations in several fields simultaneously - semiconductor processing, system design, chip architecture, software algorithms.
Other semiconductor researchers think the industry is still far away from the ultimate limits of optical semiconductor processing.
The principal use of nitromethane is as a stabilizer for chlorinated solvents, which are used in dry cleaning, semiconductor processing, and degreasing.
It was not commonly used in semiconductor processing for many years, but has seen a resurgence with more widespread use of chemical-mechanical polishing techniques.
However, optical lithography methods are rapidly approaching their fundamental limits, and further gains may not be possible without radically rethinking semiconductor processing.
Both have well known insulating properties and have been used in standard semiconductor processing for years.
The company was founded based on research done at Cornell University, that combined semiconductor processing and photonics with biotechnology research.
The Kaufman ion source is now also used for other applications, such as ion implanters used in semiconductor processing.
Conventional semiconductor processing requires a vacuum process to deposit the semiconductor film on the substrate.
As a result of this work Dr. Shanfield was awarded patents for semiconductor processing and control electronics.