Education, Work and Research Experience

Marcel continuously pursues his dream of a thriving career in academia.  He currently is a Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Research Scholar and Professional Research Assistant at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, in the group of Steven M. George.  There, he works on SRC project 3083.001: »Gas-Phase Methods for Selective Thermal Atomic Layer Etching of Si-Based Materials« (2022-2024) with industry liaisons from Intel Corporation, Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), ASM International, and IBM Corporation.  Before that, he successfully completed SRC project 2871.001: »Area-Selective Deposition of Organic Films using Molecular Layer Deposition and Molecular Layer Etching« (2019-2021) with industry liaisons from Intel, TEL, IBM, and ASM.

Already in 2008, a student research project on the »Investigation and Optimization of a Plasma-Enhanced Ruthenium ALD Process« at the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) in Dresden, Germany, in the group of Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Johann W. Bartha sparked Marcel’s interest in atomic layer deposition (ALD) and ellipsometry.  In 2010, he attended the European Union (EU)-funded »Multifunctional Nanomaterials Characterisation Exploiting Ellipsometry and Polarimetry (NANOCHARM) Winter School on Ellipsometry« in Bad Hofgastein, Austria.  In 2011, he graduated from TUD with a Diplom-Ingenieur (Dipl.-Ing., equivalent to a Master of Science, M.Sc.) degree in electrical engineering.  His course of studies specialized in microelectronics and included the subjects:  electromagnetic theory, solid-state electronics, digital & analog circuit design, materials science, vacuum technology, semiconductor technology & metrology, among others.  His master’s thesis about the »Development and Characterization for a Thermal-Activated Atomic Layer Deposition Process of Ruthenium via In-Situ Measurement Techniques« was assigned the GLOBALFOUNDRIES award 2011 for the year’s best diploma thesis in the microelectronics degree program.

After his M.Sc., Marcel got a six-month contract as a Scientist at the Nano-electronic Materials Laboratory gGmbH (NaMLab) Dresden under Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Mikolajick.  Afterward, he received a three-year Ph.D. Innovation Fellowship from the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Free State of Saxony of the Federal Republic of Germany.  At the turn of 2012/13, he stayed for a quarter year as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA, in the ellipsometry group of Prof. Dr. habil. Mathias Schubert.  There, he worked on »Atomic Layer Deposition of Metals Monitored by In-Situ Ellipsometry« and evaluated a precursor for the ALD of gold in collaboration with Seán Barry from Carleton University, Canada.  The results of which he presented at the American Vacuum Society (AVS) 13th International Conference on ALD in San Diego, USA, (2013).  In Lincoln, he gained profound knowledge of ellipsometry instrumentation, data acquisition, and modeling, which enabled him to accelerate an in-situ real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry (irtSE) method toward a sampling rate above 1 Hz.  Back in Dresden, he pioneered the irtSE investigation of oxide, nitride, and metal ALD in combination with hybrid, in-vacuo metrology;  namely, x-ray and ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy, as well as scanning probe microscopy.  In 2023, he will defend his dissertation on »In-Situ Real-Time Spectroscopic Ellipsometry as a Method for the Investigation of [oxide, nitride, and metal] Atomic Layer Depositions« at TUD.

From 2014 to 2018, Marcel researched as a full-time Scientist at TUD on the German Research Foundation (DFG) project »Quantum-Mechanical Device Concepts Including Ultra-Thin Functional ALD Films for Employment in TeraHertz Applications (Qualify THz)« in close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christian Wenger from the IHP GmbH – Leibniz Institute for Innovative Microelectronics, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.  Together, they developed processing strategies for the dielectric-graphene integration to fabricate and characterize a new generation of bipolar-type transistor architectures with monolayer graphene as the base terminal sandwiched between ultra-thin tunnel dielectrics.  This included surface-science characterizations of several types of monolayer graphene, as well as ALD nucleation studies thereon.  The project achievements were integrated into IHP’s pilot production.

Research Interests and Expertise

Marcel is an inductive thinker, very suitable as a scientist.  In total, until now, his advanced expertise in selective, Ångström-level processing (ALP);  i.e., atomic layer etching (ALE), ALD, molecular layer deposition (MLD), area-selective deposition and etch;  as well as in-situ and in-vacuo metrology, is based on more than a decade of applied experience.  In addition, he gathered over ten years of experience in leading industry collaborations and contract research with:  inter alia, Intel, TEL, IBM, ASM, Infineon Technologies Regensburg, Germany, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden, where his gained research results have been reproducibly transferred into semiconductor device production.  He majorly contributed to two project proposals that got successful funding from the DFG.  Personal grants until now include:  his Ph.D. Innovation Fellowship (2011-2014), a Travel Award of TUD’s Graduate Academy (GA, 2015), and a Group2Group Exchange for Academic Talents (great!ipid4all) Grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and TUD’s GA (2017).

Publications and Peer Reviews

Marcel authored and co-authored, respectively, 14 peer-reviewed publications together with 56 different co-authors, which attracted 154 citations by 126 different documents on Scopus® (2011-2022, h-index: 9).  He gave an invited, 90-min lecture on »In-Situ Characterization for ALD/ MLD« at the MP1402 – Hooking together European Research in Atomic Layer Deposition (HERALD) Summer School »Atomic Layer Deposition: Method and Applications« in Brescia, Italy (2015);  an invited talk on the »Chemical Path to Atomic Layer Etching« at the Novel High-k Application Workshop in Dresden (jointly with Dr. Jonas Sundqvist, 2016);  and an invited, 30-min tutorial on »In-Situ Metrology Techniques in ALD« at the Europäische Forschungsgesellschaft Dünne Schichten e.V. (EFDS) Workshop »ALD for Industry« in Dresden (2017).  In addition, he presented over 25 oral or poster contributions as the first author at internationally established workshops and conferences.  He also conducts peer reviews for the scientific journals:  Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Materials Science, Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, and Microelectronic Engineering.

University Didactics, Teaching and Supervising Experience

Marcel has passed sound training in higher education teaching (2011-2013) and holds the Saxonian Certificate of University Didactics from Saxony’s Centre for Teaching and Learning (HDS).  He possesses teaching experience as a mentor of the courses:  »Basics of Electrical Engineering« (winter semester 2011/12) and »Electric and Magnetic Fields« (summer semester 2012) at TUD.  In addition, he supervised four master’s theses (one of which was assigned the GLOBALFOUNDRIES award) and four interdisciplinary student research projects.  His students, up to now, came from India, China, or Germany.  At CU Boulder, he has mentored a first-year graduate student from the United States (since 2022).

Organization of Scientific Workshops,
Membership in Scientific Networks and Societies

Marcel co-organized the 2nd HERALD Early Career Investigator (ECI) Meeting »Bonding HERALD.ECIs from Ideas to Proposals« in Barcelona, Spain, (2018) together with Mariona Coll and Maximilian Gebhard.  He was an elected member of the extended executive board for the Arbeitskreis Ellipsometrie – Paul Drude e.V. (AKE, 2014-2016), where he has been an active member since 2012.  He was a student member of the following scientific societies:  SPIE (2015), Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft e.V. (DPG, 2014-2018), AVS (2013, 2015), Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik e.V. (VDE, 2011-2018).