6/1/2021 As told to Allie Arp, CSL
ECE graduate Shunya Namiki reflects on his time at the University of Illinois, discusses his future plans, and shares advice to current students.
Written by As told to Allie Arp, CSL
ECE graduate Shunya Namiki is taking the research experiences he had in HMNTL as a master’s degree student under adviser Xiuling Li to Taiwan and Phoenix after graduation. He credits those experiences, as well as the classes that were part of his electrical and computer engineering degree for preparing him for his career.
What are your plans after graduation?
My plan is to work fulltime for the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as a process integration engineer. For the first 18 months I will be completing a training portion of the job in Taiwan. After that I will move to Arizona where they have a five-nanometer fabricator.
In this position, I will be making sure that the manufacturing yield is going to be held to a high standard. It is a manufacturing site for computer chips so I will analyze electrical characterization data and work with process engineers and chip design customers to solve processing issues for the most advanced products.
How will your experiences at HMNTL/ Illinois help you in this career path?
The experiences I acquired here at HMNTL and the University of Illinois are going to help me tremendously because I’ve taken a bunch of courses related to semiconductor devices fabrication and this position is the perfect fit for someone with that background. I’ve also previously done research in the field -- I’ve done plasma free wet etching of semiconductors -- so the position is very relevant to my research. I look forward to applying the knowledge I gained here to excel in this position.
What are you most looking forward to in your career?
I look forward to growing as an engineer in my career, first and foremost. I don’t really know what I will end up doing in 20-30 years, but I expect to gain a lot of technical experience from this point on. In order to do that, I have to work hard and keep myself hungry to acquire more skills and knowledge.
What was your favorite memory from your time at HMNTL?
My favorite memory from HMNTL is having casual chats with some of my colleagues in the same lab group. Whether I needed help on some kind of fabrication process and I need advice, or I just wanted to have a quick brainless chat with them, it was fun and I always looked forward to conversing with them.
What research project are you particularly proud of from your time at Illinois?
I’m proud of my gallium arsenide photodiode project and the paper that came from it. I published that work as my very first, first-author paper and I was proud of the work I did and the work that my coauthors did as well.
What advice do you have for current students?
My advice is to always stay hungry to learn more. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Sometimes some classes may intimidate you, you may shy away from classes even though they sound interesting, but you should take those classes because when you look back, maybe 2-3 years later, you’ll be very proud and happy you’ve taken those courses.
Read the original article on the HMNTL site.