In Memoriam: Vladimir Ukraintsev

SPIE Senior Member Vladimir Ukraintsev of Qorvo, Inc., passed away 8 June in Allen, Texas, at the age of 64.

Ukraintsev served as co-chair of the Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control conference at SPIE Advanced Lithography (AL) in 2018 and 2019. He was also an instructor for SPIE Short Courses in metrology and atomic force microscopy.

"A strong contributor to the Metrology conference with high-quality technical papers, Vladimir was just as importantly a thoughtful and enjoyable person," says SPIE Fellow Martha Sanchez, senior engineer/scientist at IBM Research, and chair of the Metrology conference for AL. "I am proud he accepted my invitation to co-chair the Metrology conference and he was a pleasure to work with. He will be greatly missed, not only for his technical contributions, but for his personal ones too."

Ofer Adan, director of technology and distinguished member of technical staff at Applied Materials, Inc., worked with Ukraintsev on the Metrology conference committee. "Vlad had a very friendly but uncompromising way of educating the conference community," says Adan, who will act as chair for the AL Metrology conference in 2020. "Asking about the reference metrology, demanding error bars —you knew that if you walked in to a session with Vlad, you will walk out with at least two good-practice engineering takeaways. While respecting tradition, Vlad introduced many innovations into how papers are ranked and scored, and took great care of the keynote topics and conference structure, which was reflected in the quality and audience-interest increase in the Metrology conference. Vlad left too soon; his legacy shines through the many results presented at the conference, relevant academia, and the industry."

The Karel Urbánek Best Student Paper Award was presented by Sanchez, left, and Ukraintsev, right, at SPIE Advanced Lithography in 2017.

Eric Solecky, an engineer at GlobalFoundries, notes: "Vladmir always displayed a passion for metrology. I recall numerous exuberant discussions on all topics related to metrology — especially accuracy. He was famous for asking tough but fair questions of presenters at the Metrology conference. He was one of a kind and can never be replaced."

Also recognising Ukraintsev's meticulous nature, SPIE Fellow Rick Silver, physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) says, "Vladimir was one of those very pleasant and fun people to be around who had a deep appreciation and passion for metrology and a practical understanding of the importance of accuracy."

SPIE Member Chris Raymond, director of technology development at Nanometrics, Inc., adds, "For as many times as he was my customer, he always treated me like a friend."

Vladimir Ukraintsev earned a PhD in Solid State Physics amd Quantum Radiophysics in 1985 from MIFI National Nuclear Research University (formerly Moscow Institute of Engineering and Physics).

Before joining Qorvo, Inc., Ukraintsev founded Nanometrology International, Inc. He also directed technical marketing at Veeco Instruments and developed metrology solutions for six technologies at Texas Instruments. 

Ukraintsev published more than 85 articles focusing on the development of metrology and characterization solutions for industrial applications.