Sam Sivakumar

Biography

An IEEE Member and Intel Fellow, Sam Sivakumar is currently director of lithography with Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon, where he has worked since 1990. As the architects of Intel Corporation’s lithography technology and strategy, he and Yan Borodovsky have advanced the art and science of lithographic patterning and kept Intel at the forefront of continued miniaturization of electronic devices. Mr. Borodovsky and Mr. Sivakumar were instrumental in developing the first 45-nm lithography process for Intel in 2007. By deploying a regular layout of unidirectional lines, they were able to extend 193-nm dry lithography for use on Intel’s 45-nm generation. Mr. Borodovsky and Mr. Sivakumar then developed a robust patterning process using immersion lithography for Intel’s 32-nm generation. Their contributions again enabled Intel to move this technology into production ahead of the industry. Mr. Borodovsky and Mr. Sivakumar have also made innovative contributions to developing new resolution enhancement technology techniques, including pixelated phase masks, chromeless phase-shift masks, and inverse lithography. These techniques allow the extension of immersion lithography to the 22-nm node, which ushered in the era of Tri-Gate transistors with the start of mass production in 2011.