Southern California Chapter

The Southwest Section was formed  on 15 March 1967,  and approved by the AVS Board on April 24, 1967. In parallel, the Southern California Thin Film Chapter was formed. The Chairs during the 1966-1970 period were:

A photo of George Neff, Vice Chairman, Michael Rivera, Chairman Southwest Section, Howard Haglund, JPL, and Jerry Porter, Southwest Section Executive Committee appeared in the June, 1968 Newsletter. 

The Southwest Section's 1st Annual Symposium was held May1-3, 1968 in Anaheim, California. Attendance at the technical sessions was over two hundred and fifty with an additional two hundred visiting the exhibits of twenty-eight companies who brought their wares to the symposium. Mr. Howard Haglund, Manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Surveyor Project, gave a most interesting talk on the "Surveyor," illustrated with a motion picture which included actual photos of the surface of the moon.

Plans for the next year's symposium were begun with April 30 - May 2, 1969 being set as the 2nd Annual Symposium date. The 1967-68 Chair, Michael Rivera, died on June 1, 1969. 

Paul Blair, Hughes Aircraft Company gave a talk "Vacuum Evaluation of Thermal Control Coatings" on July 16^th, 1969. The contact  for information was Southwest Section AVS, 8380 Melrose, Los Angeles, CA 90069 (phone 651.5777). 

The Third Annual Symposium was held at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California on 15-19, June 1970 jointly with the Vacuum Metallurgy Division's International Conference. Extensive equipment exhibits were planned. The section meeting covered the general areas of Space Simulation, Vacuum Science, and Thin Film Technology and there was a one day joint session with the VMD. The program chair was Warren D. Wright, General Dynamics Pomona Division, P. O. Box 2507, Mail Zone 6-91. Pomona, California 91766. 

With the introduction of the new AVS organizational structure in 1971, the Southwest Section was replaced by the Southwest RAG (zips 900-935) and both the previous Section and the  Joint Thin Film & Surface Science Chapter became chapters within the RAG. On January 1, 1990, the two merged as the Southern California Chapter. 

Information on current activities can be obtained from the Chapter web page, which is accessed through the AVS Web site. 

The Chapter Chairs were: 

Past Events

1965

May 24: the  proposed chapter of the Thin Film Division and Vacuum Technology  Inc sponsored a meeting; Fred Moritz was acting chair for the chapter, which was to hold a meeting  on September 14 to formalize the Chapter. The Chapter was officially approved to start operation in January, 1966 with Robert Hoffman as Chair.

1967

May: Dinner meeting at the Cockatoo Inn; Paul Redhead was the speaker. July: Dinner meeting at the Cockatoo Inn

August: Dinner meeting at the Cockatoo Inn

September: Dinner meeting at the Cockatoo Inn; it was decided to hold the 1^st Annual Symposium in Los Angeles in spring 1968.

1968

May 1-3: The First annual symposium and equipment exhibit at the Grand Hotel, Anaheim, California. The banquet speaker will be Howard Haglund, Manager, Surveyor Project, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Symposium will feature technical papers in the fields of vacuum science, thick films, and space technology.

1969

May 7-9: 2nd Annual Symposium and Equipment Show  "Vacuum Science and Technology" at the International Hotel, Los Angeles. The Program will include technical papers and panels, as well as workshop sessions. Scheduled to address the Symposium is Dr. James M. Lafferty new national President of the AVS. He will speak at the opening session Wednesday Morning, May 7. Sealab III, the U.S. Navy's current open ocean project to extend the operating depth of undersea submersibles, will be the topic of the featured address. The 60-day Sealab III Project, now underway at the 600-foot level in waters off San Clemente Island, California, includes environmental and engineering tests. Harold Bernstein, Head of the Materials Section for the Deep Submergence Systems Project, Chevy Chase, Md., will discuss Sealab III at a banquet meeting Thursday evening May 7.

June: meeting at JPL with a tour of the Space Flight Simulator Operation Center

July: Paul Blair of Hughes Aircraft “Vacuum Evaluation of Thermal Control Coatings”

Aug; Don Santeler and Steven Dizio of Aerovac Corp on “UHV-Cryosublimation-Advanced techniques”

1970

June 14-19: Joint Southwest Section and Vacuum Metallurgy Division meeting at the  Anaheim Convention Center,  with a short course for vacuum technicians taught by Bill Brunner (Lawrence Rad lab.); the course fee was $30

1971

March 17: a panel led by Dr. Seymour Fenerstein of Aerospace Corporation discussed "Solid Lubricants versus Liquid Lubricants for Space Applications and Important Factors in Establishing Long Term Reliability in Spacecraft Lubricant Systems."

May 13: Fourth Annual Symposium at the Cockatoo Inn, Hawthorne, California. The technical sessions will be followed in the evening by the Chapter's annual banquet. Exhibits will be housed adjacent to the technical sessions.

Sept 21: Esther Krikorian “Particle Kinetic Energy Effects on Nucleation and Film Growth Behavior”

1972

march 2-3: Fifth Annual Symposium at the Newport Inn, Newport Beach, California. The technica1 program chairman is George Neff of Isovad Engineering Company and the conference chairman is Warren D. Wright of Balzers, High Vacuum Corp . This symposium will include equipment displays and the annua1 chapter banquet.

1974

June 4: 7^th Annual Combined Symposium-Southern California Vacuum Technology and Thin Film Chapters, Cockatoo Inn.

November 21: Mini joint symposium on “Deposition Technologies”, Cockatoo Inn.

1975

June 3: 8^th Annual Combined Symposium, Cockatoo Inn. Technical Sessions: Vacuum Technology. Thin Film Physics and Thin Film Devices

1976
June 8; 9th Annual Combined Symposium. Cockatoo Inn. Technical Sessions: Vacuum Technology and Thin Film Devices

1977

May 31-June1: “The Thick and Thin Film Application Conference,” co-sponsored by the International Society of Hybrid Microelectronics at the  Century Plaza Hotel, LA

1978

April 18: 11^th Annual Joint Symposium, Cockatoo Inn. Technical Sessions: Novel Thin films, Thin Film Devices, Surface Science, and Vacuum Technology. Courses: Applied Thin Film Optics and Fundamenta1s of Sputtering Technology

1979

April 10-11: 12^th Annual Combined Symposium, Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim “Fabrication technologies for high speed ICs”.  There were 44 vendors in the equipment exhibit, which was held in the same space to be used in 1981 for the National Symposium.  Four courses were given and the  total attendance was 335. The  lunch speaker was Bill Gair “Behind-the-scenes engineering at Disneyland”.

1980

March 25-26: 13^th Annual Combined Symposium, Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim “Vacuum Technology for a New Decade”. There were 44 vendors in the equipment exhibit and 330 attendees. Five courses were given: “Operation and Maintenance”, “Contamination Control”,  “Ion Implantation”, “Applied thin film optics” and “Plasma etching”.

1981

April 21-22: 14^th Annual Combined Symposium, Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim. There were 50 vendors in the equipment exhibit 160 attendees plus 97 registered for the courses: “Cryopumping”, “Sputter Deposition”, “Vacuum System Maintenance and Operation”, and a new course on “Ellipsometry” taught by Melvin Pedinoff.

1982

April 6-7: 15^th Annual Combined Symposium, Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim “Microfabrication technologies”. The AVS courses “Operation and Maintenance”, “CVD for Electronics”, “Microcircuit Thin Film Technology” were given as well as two new AVS courses “Techniques of Surface Preparation”, “Optical spectroscopy for semiconductor processing ”The total attendance was 280. Stan Goldfarb gave the lunch talk on “Why Airplanes Fly”, which had the audience well entertained!

June 25: One Day Sputtering Workshop--Methods and Applications, Marriott Hotel, Newport Beach; Speakers; Gottfried Wehner, John Thornton, Peter Clarke, and Walter Class.

In the May 1982 issue of the AVS Newsletter, the Chapter’s activities in providing awards and judges at Science & Engineering Fairs in Greater San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Ventura county were reviewed. The Chapter had established this program after deciding that it could not have impact at university level because of the funds available. At the 27^th Annual Orange County Science Fair, Marcus Sheldrake won the award for a home-built nitrogen laser and the demonstration of fluorescence; he received $50 and a copy of the “Handbook of Thin Film Technology”. However, no awards were given at the other fairs because there were no vacuum-related projects.

1983

April 10-11: 16^th Annual Combined Symposium  “Compound thin films”, at the Marriott Anaheim

April 11-13: AVS Course program at the Marriott Anaheim; there was one 5-day course and 13 other courses; they are listed in the March 1983 issue of the AVS  Newsletter

Sept. 21: One-Day Workshop.-Advanced Semiconductor Materials &. Devices, Rockwell International Science Center, Thousand Oaks

1984

April 10-11: 17^th Annual Combined Symposium, Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim. AVS Course program; there was one 5-day course and 21 other courses; they are listed in the January 1984 issue of the AVS  Newsletter. 

1985

April 9-12: 18^th Annual Combined Symposium. Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim.  A Mini Workshop Fair was held on April 10, which included basic fundamentals and hands on operation of He leak detectors, RGAs, Pumps and gauges, Thin Film measurement methods , and sessions on “Quality control in VLSI Processing” on April,11. There was an exhibit and an AVS course program.

The Elmer J Carvey Scholarship Fund was established to provide tuition to a Southern Californian for a period of up to 4 years at a California State College or University. The goal was to generate a $15,000 fund to make it sel-sustaining. The Chapter provided $2,000, AVS provided $2,000, and $2,000was income from the symposium.  The fund was named for one of the early engineers in the Chapter.  In 1961, 3 scientists from Hughes Research chased a milk truck to find a company to make stainless steel vessels. They ended up at  C E Howard Engineering, where Elmer worked for 35 years from 1947. As Chief engineer, he built them a 5ft diamx10ft long chamber for the Ion Engine Project and other vessels for later projects, the largest being a 65ft diam x 135ft long Space Chamber for NASA. In 1964, Elmer, George Neff (Hughes), Fred Davis (Rockwell), and Mike Rivera (Ford Aeronautics) formed the Southwest Vacuum Group which later became the base for the formation of the Section in 1967. 

1986

 March 18-19; 19^th Annual Combined Symposium  “Ion Beam Technology and its Application”. Disneyland Hotel Convention Center, Anaheim. There  was also a course program.

June ??: “Optical thin Films”,

September 25: Workshop on “New Developments in Surface Analysis”, , Hughes Research, Malibu.

October ??: “Bio-implantable sensors”

1987

March 23-28: 20^th Annual Combined Symposium in conjunction with the  20^th ICMC at the Town & Country, San Diego. The  Chapter’s co-sponsored symposium C on “Properties of Coatings used in Microelectronics”, with sessions on Metallization in Microelectronics, Thin Film Barrier Layers, New Materials and Emerging Technologies, and Thin Films Used in Packaging, and a student poster session on microelectronics; awards of $500,  $300,  and $200 were given for the three best papers. The AVS course program included a 3-day “Vacuum Technology” (Harland Tompkins)), a 2-day “Operation and maintenance” (Bill Brunner), a 2-day “Vacuum Equipment and computers’ (Dick Gilbert), and 1-day courses on “Fundamenrtals and technology of Ion plating” (Don Mattox), “Characterization of films and coatings” (Don Mattox), and  “Handling Hazardous materials in Semiconductor processing” (Ed Sawicki)

1988

March 22-23: 21^st  Annual Combined Symposium, Hotel Queen Mary, Long Beach; Technical Sessions: Laser Assisted Processes in Semiconductor Technology plus Workshops on Residual Gas Analyzers and Thin Film Diagnostics

1989

January 23: Open house at JPL Center for Microelectronics Technology was sponsored  by TF/SS Chapter.

April 3-7: 22nd Annual Combined Symposium and Topical  Conference on “Surface Conditioning of Vacuum Systems”, Los Angeles Airport Hilton. co-sponsored by PSTD and VTD. There was a hands-on  Workshop on PVD and about 80 vendors in the equipment exhibit. There were 10 courses offered; they are listed in the Jan/Feb 1989 issue of the AVS Newsletter. 

1990

January 20:  at Caltech “Non-equilibrium Materials Synthesis and Characterization”

March 9: BEEM (Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy) workshop at NASA’s JPL. 

1991

January 28: 2^nd BEEM at JPL.

February 21: 1^st annual  Surface/interface Research Meeting, Univ of Cal Riverside; 16 oral papers, 68 attendees (35 students). Northrop donated $100 for the best student paper, which was won by Paul Weakliem, UCLA

September 25: 24th Exhibition and Annual Symposium, Pasadena Convention Center; registration fees were  $40 for a whole day, $25for a half day, and $15 for students. There was an employment search seminar,  and three courses.

At the California State Science Fair, the awards committee were shocked that errors were going uncorrected by schools; e.g. in a demonstration of the influence of gravity on crystal growth, the student claimed to be “pumping out the gravity’ instead of the air! As a result, the Chapter decided to provide technical support to students  by partnering with some schools, as described in the Jul/Aug 1991 AVS Newsletter. 

1992

September 30: 25th Annual Symposium, Pasadena Convention Center 

1993

September 29: 26th Annual Symposium, Pasadena Convention Center. Technical Sessions: Cutting-Edge Research in Southern California, Advances in Industrial Vacuum Technology; Workshops in RGA and Nanoprobe Imaging There were 300 attendees. Ron Bunshah chaired a review session on coatings. 

1994

February ??: Dinner meeting at which the new officers were installed, the Carvey Scholarship was set at $2000 for 1993-94, and a $500 award to a science teacher was decided for 1994.

September 13: 27th Annual Symposium, Pasadena Convention Center. Four courses were given. 

1995

September 27: 28th Annual Symposium, Anaheim Marriot. There were 70 vendors in the exhibit. Workshops on  “Microomaching” and “Vacuum Coating” were held as part of a new type of symposium program. 

1996

September 24-26: 29th Annual Symposium, Anaheim Marriot. The same type of program was in 1995 was repeated with the workshops being repeated. There was a student symposium on  “The leading edge in Southern California research” and 13 courses were offered.

The Chapter was profiled in the Jul/Aug 1996 AVS Newsletter. It had 354 members, and was supported by about 80 vendors. 

1997

September 24-25: 30th Annual Symposium, Anaheim Marriot. There were 10 courses offered, one being a new 1-day course “Thin Film deposition by sputter process” (Bill Sproul). 

1998

September 23: 31st Annual Symposium, Doubletree Hotel,  Anaheim. The graduate student presentations “The leading edge in Southern California research” was repeated; there were 80 vendors in the exhibit and seven  courses were offered. 

1999

September 13-14: 32nd Annual Symposium. The graduate student presentations “The leading edge in Southern California research” was repeated. Courses were offered. 

2000

March 27-30: Course program at the Sheraton, Ventura; five courses were offered.

October 23-24: 33rd Annual Symposium. The course program contained  6 courses, which were listed in the Sep/Oct 2000 AVS Newsletter. 

2001

October 1-2: 34th Annual Symposium, Sheraton Anaheim. The course program contained  8 courses 

2002

October 1-2: 35^th Annual Symposium & Equipment Exhibition, Sheraton, Anaheim, CA. There were 4 short courses offered, a Vacuum Coating Workshop, Leading Edge Student Symposium and Equipment Exhibition with over 70 participating companies. 

2003

October 7: 36^th Annual Symposium & Equipment Exhibition, Sheraton, Anaheim, CA. The are 4 short courses offered (sponsored by the Chapter), a Nanotechnology Workshop, Leading Edge Student Symposium and Equipment Exhibition.

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