Graduation assignment: Investigate the effect of microstructure on a freestanding membrane lifetime

Introduction
This is a graduation assignment for a student specialized in material science and engineering who is interested in analytical characterization which shall be used to study a pellicle microstructure.

Job Mission
Pellicle is a thin film membrane which is used in EUV scanner(NXE) and protect the mask from defects and particles. Pellicle is made of a poly-crystalline silicon film and working under harsh conditions(EUV light, plasma, vacuum and high temperature). In order to have a pellicle with robust performance and meet lifetime requirements , pellicle microstructure should be controlled and understood.

Job Description
Your main task will be to use different characterization techniques such as HRSEM,TEM, EBSD, AFM to study a pellicle microstructure. You should be hands-on experiment. You should be able to use image processing techniques to quantify pellicle microstructure e.g. grain size and so on. In addition you need to correlate microstructure of pellicle with performance and build up understanding on pellicle performance drift during lifetime tests. 

Education
You are a  highly motivated student with material science and engineering background with high interest in analytical characterization. You should be eager to work in  team. You should be creative and innovative. Knowledge of programming language like Matlab/Python is a plus.

This is a graduation internship for 5 days a week with duration of a minimum 9 months.  

Note that the outcome of this work cannot be published.

Please keep in mind that we can only consider students (who are enrolled at a school during the whole internship period) for our internships and graduation assignments. 

Other information

What ASML offers
Your internship will be in one of the leading Dutch corporations, gaining valuable experience in a highly dynamic environment. You will receive a monthly internship allowance of 500 euro (maximum), plus a possible housing or travel allowance. In addition, you’ll get expert, practical guidance and the chance to work in and experience a dynamic, innovative team environment.

ASML: Be part of progress
We make machines that make chips – the hearts of the devices that keep us informed, entertained and safe; that improve our quality of life and help to tackle the world’s toughest problems.
We build some of the most amazing machines that you will ever see, and the software to run them. Never satisfied, we measure our performance in units that begin with pico or nano.
We believe we can always do better. We believe the winning idea can come from anyone. We love what we do – not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. 

Students: Getting ready for real-world R&D
Pushing technology further is teamwork, and our R&D team is more than 5,500 people strong, with major sites on three continents. Dozens of diverse, interdisciplinary teams work in parallel to meet a challenging development schedule. 
In such an environment, your colleagues may be sitting next door, or they could be thousands of kilometers away in a different country, or even working for a different company.
An internship at ASML is your opportunity to get to know this world of industrial-strength R&D and get a feel for that excites you most. Will you design a part of the machine, or make sure it gets built to the tightest possible specifications? Will you write software that drives the system to its best performance, or work side-by-side with the engineers of our customers in a fab, optimizing a system to the requirements of the customer?