 I'm Mark Lundstrom. I'm the Dean of Engineering here at Purdue and it's my pleasure to be talking with Dr. Tony Yin. Tony is Vice President and head of the Technology Development Center for the company ASML. Now Tony and I have known each other for a long time since Tony was an undergraduate here at Purdue and I followed Tony's career as he went to MIT to do his PhD and then worked for several companies, notably TSMC, the largest chip manufacturing company in the world, spent some time at an organization called Semitech and worked at iMac in Europe and Tony currently now is working for the company that is probably most responsible for keeping Moore's law going. This is just a phenomenal company that makes tools that are used in the chip manufacturing process. So Tony I'd like to ask you a few questions and maybe we'll begin by asking you to reflect on your time at Purdue and is there a course or an experience that particularly stands out to you? Yes, so if I want to name one professor that had a huge impact on my life and career it's you Mark. I took two classes with you right EE255 and EE455 and also I took meals at Owen Hall although I lived in Ross 8 and then you were a fellow of Owen Hall so every week and you and your young family came to join us at the dinner table and that gave me an extra opportunity to discuss things, your research on semiconductors right beyond the classrooms. Okay, well thank you, you know I'm flattered you know given all that you've accomplished in your career. Yes, so I really I want to thank you once more for this opportunity. Now ASML is probably a company that most people outside the semiconductor field have not heard from. Can you describe in a sentence or two what ASML's business is? Yes we provide lithography solutions for the semiconductor industry. And lithography maybe we should actually explain what lithography is. Yeah, lithography is to put the patterns that you want to have on the wafer why first we make a photo mask right photo masks are normally written using electron beams and then you process the electron beams you do you you etch the patterns on a photo mask and then you put the photo mask in the scanner and then you replicate the patterns on a photo mask onto the silicon wafer right the current field size is 26 by 33 millimeters so on a 12 inch wafer you can have up to a hundred fields about a hundred fields but in each field you can have many dies right and each die is a chip so for example you can have six dies in the field and that means you can have 600 dies good dies on a wafer if you're yields perfect. Yeah just remarkable. So you ASML currently manufactures the most sophisticated tool of this kind I don't believe there's any other company in the world that can do what your company does. That is true. Now when you look to the future what are the what are the challenges what projects are you working on currently? We continue to develop our next generation lithography tools that's the high numerical aperture EUV scanners one of these tools will come out next year and then that will take us to definitely be on the two nanometers that'll give us a few more generations of future semiconductor devices. Okay very good so we understand that ASML is growing rapidly yeah maybe you could tell our students when you when you're looking to hire new college grads what are you looking for what kind of disciplines what kind of talents or other abilities? Yes we're looking for talents we're looking for engineers from all disciplines right we're looking for physicists we're looking for chemists we're looking for material scientists we're looking for students who are curious who have the stamina and then who take delight in solving difficult problems right we offer a rewarding career for for these students but it's a career right it's it's a marathon not a sprint right right well it sounds like an exciting career so do you have some advice for students that maybe are brand new to this field or just learning about it do you have some advice for those who are interested in semiconductors how do they how do they pursue a path that will lead them to a career in semiconductors? Yes and and now is the right moment and Purdue is the right place right with the passing of CHIPS Act we now have a Sputnik moment Purdue has been engaged in semiconductor from the earliest to the days right from the the germanium work during World War II to for the detectors of the radars right to the 50 plus faculty members that are working on semiconductors today so Purdue is the great place to to do that so I would advise a student to work hard keep an open mind and grasp grasp the co-op opportunities or summer internships right to go to the the industry to see how semiconductors are done in real life okay well good you know maybe one final question you know you know students may be thinking you know semiconductors are exciting and everyone is talking about them now they may be wondering do I have a career in 10 years and 20 years in semiconductors when you look out longer term what do you see as the future of this industry I think the future is very bright more and more semiconductors are chips are needed as we migrate into a intelligent society for example electric driverless cars so I think the future is very bright for semiconductors okay good I agree so so listen thank you for spending a few minutes talking with me and and you know I want to thank you and your company for for all that you've done the technical innovations that have made this sophisticated electronics possible and really makes makes the modern world as we know it possible yeah and thanks for coming here to Purdue today and bringing your team with you you're welcome very welcome I'm very happy to be back here at Purdue and I want to thank Purdue and I want to thank you for a fine education that I received while undergrad here thank you very much thank you Tony