jetzzfan: Silicon is going to be around for at least a few more years. I'm still amazed (and still not 100% sure) at how Ivy Bridge is made

/process engineer for (a very small part of) Ivy Bridge

OK, I have the chance to ask, so I'm going to ask. What does a process engineer do?

First they came for the silicon in the boobs, and I said nothing.
 
Then they came for the silicon in the chips, and I still said nothing...

SuperSeriousMan: First they came for the silicon in the boobs, and I said nothing.
 
Then they came for the silicon in the chips, and I still said nothing...

then they asked for some of my potato chjips... and I was like get your own

Terrified Asexual Forcemeat: OK, I have the chance to ask, so I'm going to ask. What does a process engineer do?

Duh. They engineer the process.

/not actually that far off the mark.

But in a way, that's what every engineer does. The manufacturing process is the whole thing, everything from the core materials to the yield sorting is the process. What does the process engineer do?

the process engineers are the ones responsible when wafer output is not high enough

Hopefully the carbon nanotube version of Moore's law is a lot faster. Intel broke the 10,000 transistor barrier way back in 1978.

jetzzfan: As a process engineer, we make sure that the tools are running on target, that maintenance is being performed on the tools correctly and that we're not screwing up the wafers with defects.

I almost took a job as a "process engineer" for a very big German company. In my case it was regulatory compliance, as in electromagnetic compatibility and product safety. Most places would call that compliance engineering or safety engineering. Your job function seems to fit that job title better than the job I didn't take.

jetzzfan: As a process engineer, we make sure that the tools are running on target, that maintenance is being performed on the tools correctly and that we're not screwing up the wafers with defects.

I mean no disrespect by this post (if anything the opposite): unlike a lot of job titles, that is one that sounds worse than it really is. Prior to this, if I heard someone say they were a "process engineer" I would have assumed they were some bullshiat consultant middleman who charges 1000/hr to draw a diagram and combine a few steps in some office process with no regard for the long-term consequences. But it sounds like it actually requires an engineering background and an understanding of materials and manufacturing.

Glad the article described why this milestone is so exciting. From the headline alone, it just seemed like a "look what we can do" type deal but the implications of the technology are actually pretty cool.

dittybopper: Meh. Let me know when they can get 10,000 triode tubes on a single chip. Then I'll be impressed.

Would it count if they glued them to the surface of the world's largest Dorito?

Terrified Asexual Forcemeat: jetzzfan: Silicon is going to be around for at least a few more years. I'm still amazed (and still not 100% sure) at how Ivy Bridge is made

/process engineer for (a very small part of) Ivy Bridge

OK, I have the chance to ask, so I'm going to ask. What does a process engineer do?

Assuming it hasn't been answered yet, process engineers typically work on sputtering systems and evaporation systems to make coat things, make wafers, etc.

/i help sell those systems

Yankees Team Gynecologist:
I mean no disrespect by this post (if anything the opposite): unlike a lot of job titles, that is one that sounds worse than it really is. Prior to this, if I heard someone say they were a "process engineer" I would have assumed they were some bullshiat consultant middleman who charges 1000/hr to draw a diagram and combine a few steps in some office process with no regard for the long-term consequences. But it sounds like it actually requires an engineering background and an understanding of materials and manufacturing.

You accurately describe what 99% of those job titles did at my former employer. Basically useless office drones that sit around and tweak(not create, or significantly refine) office process flow charts. Its the position you end up in once you suck enough dick to not be expected to actually perform measurable amounts of work.

IT dept at ginormo-bank. 99 people refining the process per person actually accomplishing real actual work.

Catenation FTW!

/eventually

Yankees Team Gynecologist: I mean no disrespect by this post (if anything the opposite): unlike a lot of job titles, that is one that sounds worse than it really is. Prior to this, if I heard someone say they were a "process engineer" I would have assumed they were some bullshiat consultant middleman who charges 1000/hr to draw a diagram and combine a few steps in some office process with no regard for the long-term consequence

Those are now called "Lean Six Sigma Experts".

/Also beware of anyone whose job involves Total Quality Engineering, Continual Process Improvement, or Business Process Re-Engineering

A process engineer in the semiconductor world works with service engineers, equipment engineers,and technicians (the hardware guys) and software engineers to develop and maintain the process that goes on inside the manufacturing machines that make the devices on the wafers. They come up with the run charts that will tell manufacturing if a particular machine is running in spec by plotting various metrology numbers that are taken during tests at strategic points in a chip's production. They will make changes to the process (power, gases, flows, pressures, temperatures, time, etc) to center the process in the best part of that run chart to minimize variability chip-to-chip to produce the highest yield per wafer. That's the short answer. They are like a baker in a high volume bakery. That's the super short answer.

Thing I'm wondering about is are all of the nanotubes the same chirality and diameter? Getting a nanotube on a chip is one thing, making them all behave the same way is a completely different thing.

/PhD work in nanotubes (and other stuff)