Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

I am a process development engineer. I have many years of experience in developing new  semiconductor processes. One of the great things about this job is the fact that you have to invent the  answer, you cannot look it up in a book or read a journal article. What you need to have is an  understanding of materials, chemistry, physics and data analysis. Along with those skills, you need to  have a belief that it is OK to fail occasionally, because that too is a learning experience.

Part of my responsibilities these days is to lead others and mentor younger engineers and scientists so  they can help develop new processes for future devices.

I use storytelling to convey the idea that the answer to a problem can come from the most unlikely  sources and all you need to do is have an open mind and listen.

Application

The biggest challenge in a process/product development environment is to actually get people to begin  a project. After a project is defined people like to have the tasks all laid out and so they can go from  point A to point B to ….point Z. Many times, the path is not clear and it is uncertain how to get there  even with thoughtfully designed experiments planned, so it leads to execution paralysis and an inability  to start a project. I use a story about a project early in my career about developing a process for a new  memory chip to illustrate the point that you don’t need to have all the answers to the problems because  you will learn along the way.

We were working on a new lithography process that worked with a new chemical reaction sequence,  with a new process step that had never been done before. It also required the coupling of two pieces of  equipment together that had never been done before. As we were working on this we started to get  good results, but they were highly variable. We systematically tracked down each component in the  equipment that we thought was contributing to the variability and replaced it or tightened the  specification.  In the end we inserted a time delay to get the process running and product produced. The  time delay was a stop gap measure that worked.

We were talking over lunch about our process problem and our stop-gap fix, when someone else  overheard our conversation and suggested that the source of variability was chemical contamination  from the normal room air. A fix was proposed, an experiment was designed to filter the contamination  out of the air and we then ran the experiment.  The experiment was a success as the filtered air allowed  us to get reproduceable results, remove our time delay and eventually identify and remove the  contaminant from the air.

Insight

The act of sharing this story over a lunch table and the fact that someone from a completely different  area was able to listen and suggest a possible cause and a solution proved the power of storytelling .

Had this not taken place it probably would have taken a few more years to identify and solve the source  of the process variations.

I use this story to coach and inspire a younger generation to move forward and implement new  processes even if they are not optimized in order to learn more along the way and to share their data,  problems and difficulties in the hopes of getting insight from someone else.

I have used this technique many times and I am convinced that it is one of the contributing factors to my  professional success.


Storytelling Challenge & Selection I am a process development engineer . I have many years of experience in developing new semiconductor processes . One of the great things about this job is the fact that you have to invent the answer , you can not look it up in a book or read a journal article . What you need to have is an understanding of materials , chemistry , physics and data analysis . Along with those skills , you need to have a belief that it is OK to fail occasionally , because that too is a learning experience . Part of my responsibilities these days is to lead others and mentor younger engineers and scientists so they can help develop new processes for future devices . I use storytelling to convey the idea that the answer to a problem can come from the most unlikely sources and all you need to do is have an open mind and listen . Application The biggest challenge in a process / product development environment is to actually get people to begin a project . After a project is defined people like to have the tasks all laid out and so they can go from point A to point B to … .point Z. Many times , the path is not clear and it is uncertain how to get there even with thoughtfully designed experiments planned , so it leads to execution paralysis and an inability to start a project . I use a story about a project early in my career about developing a process for a new memory chip to illustrate the point that you do n’t need to have all the answers to the problems because you will learn along the way . We were working on a new lithography process that worked with a new chemical reaction sequence , with a new process step that had never been done before . It also required the coupling of two pieces of equipment together that had never been done before . As we were working on this we started to get good results , but they were highly variable . We systematically tracked down each component in the equipment that we thought was contributing to the variability and replaced it or tightened the specification . In the end we inserted a time delay to get the process running and product produced . The time delay was a stop gap measure that worked . We were talking over lunch about our process problem and our stop - gap fix , when someone else overheard our conversation and suggested that the source of variability was chemical contamination from the normal room air . A fix was proposed , an experiment was designed to filter the contamination out of the air and we then ran the experiment . The experiment was a success as the filtered air allowed us to get reproduceable results , remove our time delay and eventually identify and remove the contaminant from the air . Insight The act of sharing this story over a lunch table and the fact that someone from a completely different area was able to listen and suggest a possible cause and a solution proved the power of storytelling . Had this not taken place it probably would have taken a few more years to identify and solve the source of the process variations . I use this story to coach and inspire a younger generation to move forward and implement new processes even if they are not optimized in order to learn more along the way and to share their data , problems and difficulties in the hopes of getting insight from someone else . I have used this technique many times and I am convinced that it is one of the contributing factors to my professional success .