What’s New: Shahid Rauf, leader of the Plasma Products Modeling team at Applied Materials, has been awarded the prestigious Plasma Prize from the American Vacuum Society – a leading organization focused on the science and technology of materials, interfaces and processing. The AVS Plasma Prize recognizes long-term contributions to plasma science and technology, with a significant emphasis on plasmas used in the semiconductor industry.

Why It Matters: Plasma is one of the fundamental states of matter. It forms when a gas is heated to high temperatures or subjected to a strong electromagnetic field, causing the atoms to ionize. Plasma is often referred to as the “fourth state of matter” because it has unique properties that distinguish it from solids, liquids and gases. Plasma can be used to generate chemical environments that are ideal for materials processing, which is why it plays a vital role in multiple semiconductor manufacturing processes, including etching, deposition, selective removal, cleaning and doping.

Applied’s Leadership: Applied is the industry leader in plasma-based products. “More than 50% of our product portfolio relies on plasmas,” Rauf said. “Our team has been using plasma science and modeling for nearly 20 years to help design Applied’s state-of-the-art plasma-based products. For example, our team’s contributions were instrumental in helping develop Sym3™, Applied’s industry-leading plasma etching system. In addition to plasma product and process design, our team places great emphasis on innovation in computational methods and plasma science to better model and design Applied’s plasma products.”