Rocky Mountain Chapter (and Section)

The Rocky Mountain Section was formed in 1967. The by-laws were approved by the AVS Board on 11 May, 1967.  

The members of the Rocky Mountain Section took advantage of the proximity of the Martin Company's plant in the Denver area to see some big space simulation laboratory hardware first hand. On May 28, 1968, a tour of the Martin space simulation chambers and the TITIAN factory was held as a preliminary to a paper by LUDWIG WOLFERT, "Instrumentation for a Mars Entry Experiment". Prof. Fred Chernow of the University of Colorado handled many of the arrangements.

In order to give its members an opportunity to get first hand information of the vacuum and related industry, he Rocky Mountain Section sponsored a series of vendor oriented programs. In these programs, one or more manufacturers or suppliers of vacuum apparatus or services was invited to address the group on their current capabilities and hardware. Meetings were scheduled for 19 November and 17 December 1969, and 17 February 1970. C.A. (Pepper) Karstendiek, Dow Chemical Company, Box 888, Golden Colorado 80402, was the contact for information. 

 The Spring Meeting  was held May 14-15, 1970 at the Ramada Inn in Denver, Colorado. Technical sessions were in the areas of: Vacuum Pumps, Vacuum Application To Space Environment, and Gas Analysis The program Chair was Prof. Fred Chernow, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Colorado , Boulder, Colorado 80302. The vendor contact was C.A. Karstendiek, Dow Chemical Co. , Rocky Flats Div., Golden, Colorado 80401  

The fall meeting program continued with the 2nd session of the Vendors Night series on December 18^th, 1969, with six vendors on the program.

Meetings were scheduled for February 11 and March 18, 1970. The February 11th meeting was given by NASA on the role of vacuum in the APOLLO program.  

With  the new AVS organizational structure in 1971, the Rocky Mountain Section became the Rocky Mountain RAG and Chapter. The RAG covered Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Until the formation of the Section in 1967, this area had been part of the Midwestern Section, which covered a very large area.  

Up to date information on the Chapter activities are available on the web page through the AVS web site.

The Chairs of the Chapter (and Section) were:

1967:

• September:

• November:

196?

• 26 March : Hubert Cohen, a physicist at the Air Force Cambridge Research Aeronomy Research Laboratory. presented a talk on "Mass Spectrometry As It Applies to the Space Environment"  at a  meeting in Denver.

1969

• 15-16 May: Annual Symposium, at Holiday Inn - Airport, Denver, The only AVS sponsored session on this year's calendar covering the subject of high rate sputtering Invited speakers include: Dr. Richard C. Krutenat, Pratt-Whitney Aircraft, Division of United Aircraft Corporation speaking on "Sputtering Complex Alloys"; Dr. Kurt Kennedy, Airco- Temescal speaking on "High Rate Evaporation"; Dan Quinn, United Aircraft Research laboratories speaking on "High Rate R.F. Sputtering"; C.A. Karstendiek, Dow Chemical Company, Rocky Flats Division speaking on "Structural Control of Sputtered Films by Substrate Biasing in a High Rate Triode System"; and D. C. Kirkpatrick and W. N. Huss, Materials Research Corporation speaking on "High Rate Sputtering Techniques". In addition, Dr. Gottfried K. Wehner , University of Minnesota, will review the field of sputtering. The technical sessions include a workshop seminar to be  presented by Dr. W. J. Lange, Westinghouse. It will deal with vacuum gauges and pressure measurements and will provide insight to the engineer or technician on designing meaningful gauging into a system, using this gauging, and then interpreting results. The remainder of the meeting consists of papers in the general areas of thin films and vacuum technology. There is a banquet Thursday night, May 15; the speaker will be Dr. Thurston Manning, Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. In addition, an equipment exhibit is associated with the meeting.

1971

• May 13-14: Spring Symposium will be held in the Ramada Inn, 455 South Colorado Boulevard, Denver

1972

• May 22-13: The Fifth Annual Spring Symposium at the Regency Inn in Denver. Invited speakers include Eric Kay, Paul Bryant, Arnold Huntress, Yale Strassner and Clifford Christopher. A banquet at the Gold Hill Inn, about 3000 feet above Boulder . Manufacturers will display their latest devices on the afternoon of the 22d and all day on the 23d.

1973

• August 13-16: 6^th Annual Symposium, in conjunction with the Integrated Coating Contractors of the Atomic Energy Commission. Unclassified papers were presented at the Harvest House Hotel, Boulder, where the equipment exhibit was held; classified papers were given at Dow Chemical, Rocky Flats

1979

• May 14-19: Denver Stouffer Inn. AVS course program; one 4-day, one 2- day, and seven 1-day courses

1980

• February 29: Four Seasons Motor Inn, Colorado Springs. Half day symposium “Electronic Materials and Processing”, registration fees are $15 member, $25 non-member,  and a course “Vacuum Leak Detection”

• June 25-27, Symposium and exhibit in Aspen, CO; a course on  “Thin Film device technology” by I Cadoff; registration $150

1981

• May 4-5, Annual Symposium at Denver Univ.; two 1-day courses: “Adhesion” (Mittal) & “Microcircuit Thin Film Technology” (John Skok & Bob Waits) with registration fees of -$150 and $175.

1982

• June 3, Annual Symposium at Broker Inn, Boulder; courses on  “Monitoring and Controlling Techniques for Thin Film Deposition Processes” and “Vacuum Leak Detection”

1983

• May 5-6: Annual Symposium at Broker Inn, Boulder held jointly with the Electron Microscopy Society of America “Analysis and problems in Electronic Materials” had expanded vendor exhibit; a course on “Surface analysis: an overview of ion and electron spectroscopies” by Al Czanderna

1984

• May 10: Annual Symposium at the Sheraton-Denver Tech Center

1985

• October 17: Dinner meeting at Fort Collins

• October 18: Dinner meeting at Colorado Springs with a talk by Robert Parrish “Space Simulation”

1986

• May ??: Annual Symposium at the Marriott Denver, The award, travel to the National Symposium in Baltimore, for the best poster paper was won by Russ Gillenwater.

1987

• June 2-5: Annual Symposium at the Sheraton-Lakewood: “Properties of Materials” with registration fee of $35, In addition to the technical sessions and equipment exhibit,  five courses were given.

1988

• ?????: 10^th Symposium on Applied Surface Analysis, at the Sheraton-Lakewood, was co-sponsored with the Applied Surface Science Division. An AVS course program was held: 20 courses were offered.

1989

• August 24: Annual Symposium at the Sheraton, Lakewood consisted of technical sessions, a technical workshop, equipment exhibit, and AVS courses, which were listed in the May-June 1989 issue of the AVS Newsletter. The symposium registration was $40 and $5 for students. Awards of $150, $100, and $50 were given for the best student poster papers.

1990

• May 18: course on “Vacuum basics for the Novice”, at the Colorado School of Mines

• August 23: Annual Symposium at the Sheraton, Lakewood with AVS National course program.

1991

• May 23: course “Fundamentals and Process Characterization of Ion Implantation” at the Colorado School of Mines

• August 22: Annual Symposium at the Sheraton, Lakewood. Best student paper awards of $150, $100, and $50 were given.

• August 19-23: 16 AVS National course program, of 16 courses, at the Sheraton, Lakewood;

1992

• September 10: 20^th Annual Symposium at the Denver Convention Complex: “Diamond deposition” & “Plasma diagnostics “ sessions and three student awards

• September 8-11:  Nine courses

1993

• August 19: Annual Symposium at the Arvada Center

• August 16-20: AVS courses at the Arvada Center

1994

1995

• August 24: Annual Symposium at the Arvada Center. The awards for the best student papers were $500, $300, and $200

• August 22-25: AVS course program with 11 courses, including a new course on “Cleaning and Contamination Control for PVD Processing”

1996

• August 19-23: Annual Symposium at the Arvada Center. had 100 attendees. The chapter was profiled in the Nov/Dec 1996 issue of the AVS Newsletter. It had 150 members, but was now targeting chemists as potential members. A 1-day course was found to have a big attendance; e.g. “Plasma diagnostics”. Also, the “Vacuum Technology course  taught by Tom Christensen had been filled for the past 3 years. The chapter gave awards for science fairs and physics bowls and had funded a teacher to attend the AVS “Science Educators Workshop”

1997

• August 18-22: AVS course program at the Arvada Center

1998

• August 20: Annual Symposium at the Arvada Center; there were 40 vendors in the exhibit.

1999

• August 16-20: AVS course program at the Arvada Center had 10 courses.

2000

• August 24: Annual Symposium at the Arvada Center; “Thin film deposition characterization and use” the student best paper awards were $500, $300, and $200, The registration fee was $60 but a corporate pass for up to six people could be purchased for $150.

• August 21-25: AVS course program at the Arvada Center; the 13 courses offered were listed in the Jul/Aug 2000 issue of the Newsletter.

2001

• August 23: Annual Symposium at the Arvada Center  consisted of technical tutorials and a session on “Optical films”

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