PNNL

Mark Willey joined Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) in 2021 following a 17 year career in the industry working in the domains of process control, semiconductor capital equipment and, most recently, semiconductor and battery materials manufacturing. As vice president at Moses Lake Industries (MLI), he founded and led MLI’s battery materials business unit which develops novel materials for non-electric vehicular lithium battery cell producers in the US. This work started in 2015 and led to a full business plan and startup of the battery materials business which continues to run today. Before his role as vice president at MLI, Willey was involved with leading multiple different technology development groups in his role as director of technology. This work included developing and rolling out a novel electroplating technology to one of the world’s leading logic chip manufacturers.

Willey initially entered the semiconductor field out of graduate school when he was recruited by Novellus systems to help support the copper electrodeposition group led by Jon Reid. His initial work focused on developing novel electroplating processes for logic and memory customers worldwide and was promoted to process manager in the through silicon via technology group.  he through silicon via work led to the development and rollout of a novel packaging tool that is now a market leader in the wafer-level packaging industry.

Project Management Professional certification, 2017

PhD in chemical engineering, Columbia University

Program for leadership development (PLD), Harvard Business School

MS in chemical engineering, Columbia University 

BS in chemical engineering, Syracuse University 

• U.S. Patent No. 20,150,179,458, June 25, 2015, “Wetting pretreatment for enhanced damascene metal filling”
• U.S. Patent No. 8,992,757, March 31, 2015, “Through silicon via filling using an electrolyte with a dual state inhibitor”
• U.S. Patent No. 20,130,284,604, October 31, 2013, “Method and apparatus for electroplating semiconductor wafer when controlling cations in electrolyte”
• Patent No. 2,010,148,147, December 23, 2012, “Apparatus for wetting pretreatment for enhanced damascene metal filling”
• Patent No. 2,011,017,197, February 10, 2011, “Monitoring of electroplating additives”
• Patent No. 2,010,022,009, February 25, 2010, “Process for through silicon via filling”
• U.S. Patent No. 20,080,264,801, October 30, 2008, “Systems and methods for monitoring plating and etching baths” 

2011

• Hatch, Jeremy J., Mark J. Willey, and Andrew A. Gewirth. 2011. "Influence of Aromatic Functionality on Quaternary Ammonium Levelers for Cu Plating." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 158 (6). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3575636.

2009

• Gallaway, Joshua W., Mark J. Willey, and Alan C. West. 2009. "Copper Filling of 100 nm Trenches Using PEG, PPG, and a Triblock Copolymer as Plating Suppressors." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 156 (8). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3142422.
• Willey, Mark J., and Edward J. McInerney. 2009. "Adsorption and Desorption Kinetics of a Block Copolymer Wetting Agent Used in Copper Electroplating." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 156 (3). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3058600.

2008

• Willey, Mark J., Ugur Emekli, and Alan C. West. 2008. "Uniformity Effects when Electrodepositing Cu onto Resistive Substrates in the Presence of Organic Additives." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 155 (4). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2837857.

2007

• Willey, Mark J., Jon Reid, and Alan C. West. 2007. "Adsorption Kinetics of Polyvinylpyrrolidone during Copper Electrodeposition." Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters 10 (4). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2436653.
• Willey, Mark J. and West, Alan C. 2007. "Nucleation on resistive substrates: Analysis of effect on film uniformity." Electrochimica Acta 52 (23): 6484-6489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2007.04.049.
• Willey, Mark J. and West, Alan C. 2007. "SPS Adsorption and Desorption during Copper Electrodeposition and Its Impact on PEG Adsorption." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 154 (3). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2431320.

2006

• Willey, Mark J., and Alan C. West. 2006. "A Microfluidic Device to Measure Electrode Response to Changes in Electrolyte Composition." Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters 9 (7). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2201253.
• Willey, Mark J. and West, Alan C. 2006. "Microfluidic Studies of Adsorption and Desorption of Polyethylene Glycol during Copper Electrodeposition." Journal of The Electrochemical Society 153 (10). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2335587.

2005

• Zheng, Min, Mark Willey, and Alan C. West. 2005. "Electrochemical Nucleation of Copper on Ruthenium." Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters 8 (10). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2035701.

Other Publications

2022

• Willey, Mark J. (2022) “The US Lithium Battery Market and the Challenge of Supporting it with Domestic Suppliers”, Invited Speaker, ECS Pacific Northwest

2021

• Willey, Mark J. (2021) “Midstream Development & Manufacturing Challenges for US Based Companies”, Invited Speaker, PNNL Battery 500 Industry Workshop

2020

• Willey, Mark J. (2020) “Development of Robust Chemical Supply Chains and Production Control Systems to Meet Tomorrow’s IC Manufacturing Requirements”, Strategic Materials Conference Taiwan, SemiTaiwan

2019

• Willey, Mark J. (2019) “A Technical Review of Quality Improvement Technologies Concerning Chemical Manufacturing”, Strategic Materials Conference Taiwan, SemiTaiwan