Past pupil, Paul Connell gave a talk to the senior physics students in St Pats about his career in the semiconductor industry . Paul holds a senior position in global operations for a company called ASM (Advanced Semi-conductor Materials) which is shaping the future at the atomic level. ASM enable the next generation of microchips by empowering leading semiconductor manufacturers like Intel with advanced wafer processing equipment. Through their mastery of thin-film deposition, they create the innovative tools and solutions that shape the materials at the heart of tomorrow’s technology – powering everything from AI and next generation healthcare to cloud computing and smarter, more energy-efficient computing devices.
Paul gave a fascinating talk about the advanced technology needed to create a silicon wafer and the processes involved in manufacturing the latest microchips used for advanced computing. Paul brought a finished silicon wafer with him to the talk, it was 300mm in diameter and contained over 250 microchips. These silicon wafers are very expensive and are typically ten’s of thousands of euro each.
To the naked eye the silicon wafer looked completely flat but if you could walk on the crystal at a nano level, it would be like walking around Manhattan such is the level of detail and precision.
Paul very generously donated ten smartphones to the physics lab with a combined value of 4000 euro saying;
“ASM are delighted to provide funding for the science department in St Patrick’s Classical . school. This helps us grow and stay ahead of what’s next through community partnerships that advance ASM in society.”
Physics teacher in St Pats , Martin Cunniffe said we are always delighted to welcome back past pupils to the school ,we love to hear their story about where life has taken them ,so many of them like Paul have reached the very top of their chosen profession and they are always willing to give something back .We are very grateful to Paul for his generous donation ,smartphones with the advanced apps now available can act like mini labs , generating ,storing and analyzing real time data.
