Gurtej Singh Sandhu, also known as Gurtej Sandhu, is an inventor in the fields of
thin film processes and materials,
VLSI and
semiconductor device fabrication. He is recognized for being the all-time seventh most
prolific inventor as measured by number of U.S. utility patents. Gurtej has 1382 U.S. utility patents . He was Senior Fellow and Director of Advanced Technology Developments at
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and USB flash drives. It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Its consumer products, including ...
, before becoming Senior Fellow and Vice President of Micron Technology.
The publication
Kiplinger reports, "Sandhu developed a method of coating microchips with titanium without exposing the metal to oxygen, which would ruin the chips. Initially, he didn't think his idea was a big deal, but now most memory-chip makers use the process." The publication also states that Gurtej earned an electrical engineering degree at the
Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi in India and a physics PhD at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
(IEEE) awarded Sandhu the 2018
IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award for outstanding contributions to
solid-state devices and
technology. They said his "pioneering achievements concerning patterning and materials integration have enabled the continuation of
Moore’s Law for aggressive scaling of
memory chips integral to consumer electronics products such as
cell phones,
digital cameras and
solid-state drives for personal and
cloud server computers." The IEEE states: "Sandhu initiated the development of
atomic layer deposition
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a thin-film deposition technique based on the sequential use of a gas-phase chemical process; it is a subclass of chemical vapour deposition. The majority of ALD reactions use two chemicals called precursors (also ...
high-k films
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
for
DRAM
Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxid ...
devices and helped drive cost-effective implementation starting with
90-nm node DRAM. Extreme device scaling was also made possible through his
pitch-doubling process, which led to the first
3X-nm NAND flash memory. Sandhu’s method for constructing large-area straight-wall capacitors enabled the formation of double-sided capacitors that extended the scaling of important one-transistor, one-capacitor (
1T1C
Dynamic random-access memory (dynamic RAM or DRAM) is a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell, usually consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxide ...
) device technologies. His process for
CVD Ti/
TiN is still in use for making DRAM and NAND chips."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandhu, Gurtej
20th-century Indian inventors
Indian patent holders
Micron Technology people