Chemical Engineering Research Opportunities in Electronic and Opitcal Materials Research.

The character of American industry and society has changed dramatically over the past three decades as we have entered the "information age". New information technologies have been made possible by materials and devices whose structure and properties can be controlled with exquisite precision. This control is largely achieved by the use of chemical reactions during manufacturing. Future U.S. leadership in microelectronics, optical information technologies, magnetic data storage and photovoltaics will depend on staying at the forefront of the chemical technology used in manufacturing processes. In recent years chemical engineering has emerged as an important discipline in research and development associated with microelectronic and optical device manufacturing. This paper describes some of the recent accomplishments that chemical engineers have made in these industries and identifies areas of new research opportunities for chemical engineers. This paper will appear as part of a publication dedicated to the centennial celebration of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering.