The final item of business this evening is a member's business debate on motion 2397, in the name of Emma Harper, on potential for Dumfries city status. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I urge members who wish to participate to press the request-to-speak buttons or place an hour in the chat function. I call on Emma Harper to open the debate for around seven minutes. This is the final member's debate of this year, and I hope that we can end this term on a positive consensual note doing something that I greatly enjoy. That's shining a big muckl light on the south-west of Scotland on my Hamed Toon Dumfries. I thank members who have signed my motion allowing the debate to go ahead today. 2022 presents an exciting opportunity as part of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee for toons across the UK to receive city status. Her Majesty appoints new cities. When I picked this opportunity up with Mark Jordan and the Dumfries People's Project in June this year, I brought together an initial meeting of stakeholders. That included local elected members, council officials, community councils, organisations, community leaders, the Lord, Lieutenant and deputies of Dumfries and many others. From this meeting came the realisation that there existed many preconceptions about what makes a town qualify to be a city. Before I extol the virtues of Dumfries in your wider region, I first want to do some myth-busting. Questions have been asked. The first myth is that you don't need to have a cathedral. The answer is no. Willie Coffey is laughing because he asked me the same question 10 minutes ago. It's not a requirement to be a city, although we do have an amazing red sandstone church on the Crichton campus. It's an awfully broad place to visit. The second myth is that Dumfries isn't big enough. The answer is that there is no population requirement for city status award. Dumfries is a population of 48,229 people, which is more than the 16 cities that already have city status, including Stirling and Perth. Other issues have been raised.  Sadly, all cities are tackling the same issues of empty shops, vacant, abandoned and also derelict buildings. Those matters are being and can be addressed if we aspire to do that. I thank the member for giving way. I just put on record that I spent part of my summer holidays in Dumfries. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it felt like a city to me, so good luck in your endeavours. Emma Harper. I thank Bob Dorris for that intervention. As he has spent his party summer in Dumfries, I would encourage all members to do that because it is a braw bonnie place. We have had the issues raised of our empty shops, vacant, abandoned and derelict buildings, but having an aspiration to attract inward investment and inward migration to improve the town has been seen already in Perth, Stirling and Inverness. When they became cities, that will help tackle many of the issues that I have already highlighted. Even just making the city bid application has led to conversations about what needs to be done to address the issues that I have highlighted and even some positive publicity does help. I want to turn to why Dumfries, the tune that I am proud to live in, which has cultural, social, innovative and environmental attributes is worthy of city status. Dumfries is the aim of Robert Burns, the birthplace of Peter Pan. It is the place that led Robert the Bruce to become King of Scotland. Dumfries is also the aim of the Savings Bank founder Henry Duncan. The father of modern physics, James Clark Maxwell, civil engineer Thomas Telford, the invention of the first bicycle by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, the father of the American navy, John Paul Jones, the Galloway car, which was made for women, by women at Tungland and Lockerbriggs, artist Jesse Marion King and Edward Hornell, music musician Ray Wilson of Genesis fame, actor Sam Hewan, a lot of the lassies I'll know him, and John Lorry and the cult classic film The Wicker Man. We can never forget local Dumfries lad Calvin Harris. Dumfries has a long history and some great stories and great characters. We even have, in our own ancient breeder kai, the world-famous Belty Galloway. Of course I will take an intervention. Oliver Mundell, I thank Emma Harper for taking an intervention. She's listed lots of wonderful people from Dumfriesshire. None of those people needed city status to succeed. What is it about being a city that she feels is so important and so lacking at the moment? Emma Harper. I thank Mr Mundell for that intervention, but I am coming to that. It's about aspiration. We boast a vibrant culture, a cultural scene with a big burn supper, the good neighbours, the oldest work in theatre in Scotland, the theatre royal, many arts, music and book festivals. Dumfries in Galloway has a UNESCO biosphere, the world-recognised dark skies park in the Galloway forest and hopefully will be the aim of Scotland's next national park. All of D&G is an amazing outdoor green space adventure park. It's home to world-class facilities like the seven stains, mountain bike trails, the ortuples. Do I have time for signers? I can give you some of that time back. Dr Allan, have you got your card in? I'm compelled to ask the member for giving way. After that last intervention, has she encountered any other opposition within Dumfries to the idea of city status, or is it just coming from over there? It is just coming from over there.  I've invited all the sceptics, Dr Allan. My door is open to have conversations with anybody about what they think the issues might be opposing this. We have such opportunities with our otterpools, seven stains, our bonnie miles and rivers, our locks, the sawy coast. It's an outdoor rural adventure if Bob Doris comes back to Dumfries in Galloway. Dumfries is the first rural city in Scotland. It will have an amazing opportunity to pursue sustainable economic green recovery from the pandemic. Our world-need and food and drink sector, including local breweries, gin, whisky and rum distilleries, are also first-class visitor destinations and would hugely benefit from Dumfries becoming a city. Dumfries also has a worldwide innovation and medical history with the first ever ether anesthetic delivered in Europe in 1846 by Dr Scott McLaughlin at Dumfries Infirmary. As a tune, we satisfy the cultural, social and environmental innovation criteria that are required for recognition to be Scotland's eighth city. The Scottish Government's agenda for cities revised in 2016 states that we want a Scotland where our cities and our regions power Scotland's economy for the benefit of all. It was published before the realities of the Brexit harms, before they were known and before the Covid pandemic. I am keen to hear from the minister what is next for this vision for cities and is it being revised to show how Scotland's cities can help power economic recovery for our regions bearing in mind that we will have one new city in Scotland in March 2022. All of those are reasons why Mark Jordan of the Dumfries People's Project and the complete support from the DNG Council led by the province Tracey Little and submitted the bid to aid with economic recovery post-pandemic. The bid is also supported by local charities, businesses, our local schools, our young people, community groups and organisations like Dumfries and Galloway housing partnership. Dumfries, which will be the first geographical city in Scotland, went head north and the only city in the south of Scotland region if it was awarded city status it could increase tourism, attract business and bolster investment into the entire region. It will truly be the Queen of the South. I am conscious of the time presiding officer. One of the benefits of city status is good transport links with other cities and easy access to the varied beauty of our rural Scotland. While many aspects of transport infrastructure across South Scotland such as bus and train links, the A75 and the A77, we know they need to be improved. City status brings greater emphasis on those issues and will bring more attention to the need for roads investment. That will only be achieved through wider attention on our whole region. In conclusion, when Perth, Stirling and Inverness received city status, they went from strength to strength, with greater job creation, increased inward migration, increased visitor numbers and improved transport infrastructure to connect them with other cities. I want to see this benefit for Dumfries and our wider region and I ask the Scottish Government to do all that it can to help this aim so that Dumfries can be the newest Scottish city and the Queen of the South. I look forward to hearing from colleagues' contributions. Thank you. Thank you, Ms Harper. I now call on Oliver Mundell, who will be followed by Colin Smyth. Four minutes, please, Mr Mundell. I thank you, Presiding Officer. It probably does not need to be stated, but I am a committed monarchist and God willing, wish to see Her Majesty reign over the United Kingdom for many years to come. After what is set to be another dark winter, the platinum jubilee celebrations offer a ray of light at the end of the tunnel and will hopefully be an opportunity for all our communities to once again come together and rejoice in all that is good about our country. I say this as I do not want anything which follows to be seen as disrespectful to the royal family who have been such great supporters of causes across Dumfriesshire, nor would I wish anything I say today to reflect negatively on the significant efforts of Mark Jordan, who, through the people's project, has done so much for the town of Dumfries. However, the truth is that none of the above, in my view, is a good enough reason to squander the main selling point of Dumfries, as a market town and the hub of our rural community. We cannot and should not simply invent cities just to take boxes. I would also question why, in a large rural region such as Dumfries, Dumfries was the automatic candidate. We have already heard that the size of the population is not a factor, so why not the royal city of Sankar, or Langham the Muckl Toon, could have been the Muckl City? I think that you should take a deep breath while I am doing this intervention. We are not talking about a massive concrete metropolis, we are talking about an aspiration for the biggest toon in the south, which can then spill out into the wider region. Do you not just have a bit of an aspiration for the south of Scotland to have one city? I say that I would have more aspiration for Dumfries than the SNP who failed it, as I will come on to later in my speech. We could have had Langham as the Muckl Toon could become the Muckl City, but in a man who still bides in Dumfries, the true meaning of life is nae in Macon Muckl Mayor, or we could have had the city of Newton-Wanffrey or, indeed, even Gretna Greene. That sounds like a flippant point, Presiding Officer, but I strongly object to the suggestion that you need to be a city to be successful, or that you need to live in a city to succeed. Instead of peddling in this panto season, Dick Whittington asked myths that only the city streets are lined with gold and not with rats and rubbish, as we see in Scotland's largest city. We should instead, in the swear I agree with Emma Harper, be confident in proudly making the case for why Dumfries is unique. Its sense of community, good neighbours, a gateway to much of our rural region, the good work-life balance, the history and culture, our connection to burns, to Barry and Bruce, but to name a few. When the idea was first floated, many in the town believed that it was in early April Fools. Others came to the conclusion that the only reason politicians would be supporting it was because politicians in cities would get paid more. Are there simply concluded—Certainly? Christine Grahame I note, Mr Mundell, that, from the motion, the law of the tenant of Dumfries supports this bill. Do you disagree with him? Through the chair, please, Ms Grahame, Oliver Mundell. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I wouldn't seek to compromise her role, but she's in a position where the council, which is made up of different political parties, has come to a position. I would find it odd if she wasn't duty-bound, but that doesn't mean that everyone supports it. Far from it, many people believe that the only reason that it's being taken forward is to distract from all the other things that have not been taken forward. I would say to Christine Grahame, as a directly elected representative, that I'm not in the business of backing unpopular ideas. That's also why I oppose border posts and plastic currency to replace the pound, but I don't want to sound too much like Scrooge or more than I have done already and dismiss all of Emma Harper's best ideas before Christmas. In all seriousness, if we want to restore and increase pride in Dumfries and keep future generations of Dunhamers at home, we need to focus on what will make a difference. For example, during the A75, ditching the £25 million bond on the white sands and de-pogestionising at least part of the high street. In closing, I will respect the outcome of the competition process, but I would politely ask those assisting Her Majesty in identifying a winner to look for a candidate where there is widespread unanimous support, not one where opinion is divided at best. Thank you, Mr Mundell. I now call on Colin Smyth, who will be followed by Paul MacLennan in four minutes. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and thank you to Emma Harper for her table in her motion. It's nice to hear someone from the clay hole back in us, Dunhamers, and I apologise to the official report who, not for the first time, be wondering what I'm talking about. Presiding Officer, Dumfries is my home, it's where I was born, it's where I've always lived, and it's where I bring up my family. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a town with a proud, rich history, and as we've already heard, including the three Bs, Burns are a national barteries. Last family home in Dumfries, where he wrote many of his finest works, including all Lang Syne, he frequented a few of the same house as I do, such as A Globe In, as well as Scotland's oldest work in theatre, the Dumfries Theatre Royal. It's where, in St Michael's Cuck's Cemetery, he was ultimately laid to rest. We have Bruce, who's slain of the red common in Dumfries Greyfriars. Cuck led to him claiming the crown as king of Scots. And Barry, the author who studied at Dumfries Academy, where my own kids will go in a few years, and who was inspired to write Peter Pan in the magical Neverland garden of Moatbury in Dumfries. Now home to the national centre for children's literature and storytelling. It's an example of how our town's proud past is cultivating a positive future, and there are many other examples. Niger town, the jewel in the crown, the 85-acre Crichton estate, originally Europe's biggest psychiatric hospital, is now home to the south's largest conference and events venue, a major business park, and a vibrant college and university campus with over 6,000 students. So, Presiding Officer, it's a little wonder the Royal Barter of Dumfries is known as the Queen of the South, which is also, of course, the name of our local football team, which also has a proud past, and is a season ticket holder. I hope that, quite soon, we'll have an even more positive future. Emma Harper. I am thanking Colin Smyth for taking an intervention because of the times constraints that I know I went over. You have mentioned the football team, the Queen of the South, and the Crichton estate, which is fantastic, so I really appreciate that. Does Colin Smyth agree that places like the People's Project, a live radio and lots of community support are out there for this, and the whole engagement process is about the community leading the whole city bid from day one? I thank Emma Harper for that intervention. It is about the community, ultimately. It's about what I call my home tune. As Queens fans of our same design, you're home teams, your own team, and what memories I've got supporting Queen of the South, such as the 2008 Scottish Cup final. No, it didn't matter that we didn't actually win the game. Thousands of the Blue and White Army still proudly paraded through the town behind the open top team bus days after the game. Of course, getting to that final led to Queens' only venture in Europe against Denmark's FC Northland. I remember walking through the main street of Copenhagen in the days before that match, and I actually felt like you were walking through Dumfries. You stopped to chat to those people, so many familiar faces, good neighbour after good neighbour. Presiding Officer, as Emma Harper said, it's that community spirit, that friendliness, that really makes the town of Dumfries. Yes, it would make the city of Dumfries. The work of those community groups that are being mentioned from the Midstiple quarter to the People's Project really does encapsulate that pride that we have in our town. I don't know if city status bid will be successful. I know some people, as we've heard by asking, is it worth it? It doesn't come with any extra funding, for example, when we are absolutely a very proud town. However, I do know that the research suggests that it can provide an economic boost to those who achieve city status, putting them on the map. And Dumfries has as good a case as anywhere to be a city. I'll take an intervention. Thank you. Jenny Minto. Thank you. Like Bob Doris, I too have hollied into Dumfries and like it. But would Colin Smith agree with me that Oban within Argyll and Bute is also a good contender for the newest city in Scotland? Carefully, Mr Smith. It was indeed, I have to say, Oban was the very first whisky distillery that I visited many years ago. However, we do have the most recent one, or one of the most recent ones, at Anandale distillery, very close to Dumfries. So maybe we could do a swap visit in the holiday at some point in the future. That's not careful, Mr Smith. It's very uncareful. Moving on quickly, I want to thank those, therefore, behind the bid, Matt Jardin, the council, the community groups. But whatever the outcome, I hope that the process, the discussion that we're having here about how we make Dumfries even better, keeps going after the bid irrespective of whether we win it or not. There's a sign above my office here in Parliament which says Dunhamer, and my first ever speech in this chamber five years ago, I told members that Dunhamer was the name for Queen of the South, but it was also the name for those of us from Dumfries. I explained its origins lay in the 19th century when many people from the town worked away from home, particularly on the railways in Glasgow, and they talked about coming back Dunhamer to Dumfries. It's a term that's never been more apt, however, than it is today, because many of our towns and our regions, young people sadly still leave the area for the high-skilled, high-wage employment opportunities that are not always available Dunhamer. That's the reason I stood for Parliament five years ago. We had lost big manufacturing bases like ICI, Nestle, Unaroy. I want to fight for better opportunities for our young people and what can often be a forgotten part of Scotland. That's why I campaigned, for example, for a decade as a councillor, representing the Dumfries Town Centre Award of Nith for a South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, which is now up and running. That's why I was part of those early days of the Borderlands Initiative that's now developed into the borderlands growth deal, but so much more still needs to be done. So whether we win or lose the city status bid, that can't be the end of the debate on the future of Dumfries. Those who live there, who have a genuine stake in our towns future, want to see action and more opportunities for young people, improvements to our towns set, and ensuring that we deliver that action therefore must be the legacy of this bid. Presiding Officer, I said at the start that Dumfries is where I was born, and it's where I've always lived. Now whether we're a proud town or we've become a city, I suspect that will always be the case for me, and I'll be more than happy with that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Smith. I now call on Paul MacLennan, who will be followed by Finlay Carson, in four minutes, Mr MacLennan. Deputy Presiding Officer, thank you very much. I welcome this opportunity to speak in this debate and congratulate my colleague Emma Harper on bringing it forward. I have to say, in my short time in this chamber, I've shaken my head of contributions from the Tory branches, but today really beats previous contributions. It really does. As a constituency MSP for East Llywain, which is part of the South of Scotland region, I'm pleased to support my colleague's calls for Dumfries to receive the city status. I think that, as has been mentioned before, I was delighted that the local council unanimously supported this bid. In the chamber, it has been supported by Labour and SNP MSPs, but oddly enough, we've heard the reasons why, from no conservative MSP has supported that. Most people think that they know what a city is. It's a larger, densely populated, distinct urban area. Lovely old cathedral is a must, as we've heard before, and that's been touched on. As I said, as has been mentioned before, the cathedral requirement is long defunct that ended in the 19th century, and the size of a city doesn't really matter. The bounds of a city status, throw up a plethora of quirks. There are 51 cities in England, 69 across the UK, including seven in Scotland, six in Wales, and five in Northern Ireland. Why not, Dumfries? Why not? City status, as we've heard, is granted by the monarch. Although obtaining the status does not grant the city any special rights, its intent is a marker of prestige and can be a symbol of pride for decisions. I thank the member for giving way. I just find it very depressing to hear from someone who represents a rural county that city status is all that matters, that somehow being a city is better than being a rural area. Can he explain to me what you get by being a city that you don't get for living in a rural area? Paul MacLennan. I thank the member for his contribution. I'll come on to that, and I have to say, if I'm the local member for East Lothian, if somebody came up and suggested city status for Dunbar or Harrington or to Nenorth, I would bite their hand off. I would absolutely bite their hand off, and I'll come on to the reasons why in that regard. As seen in Perth, still and in Venice, city status can also bring many economic benefits. I'll touch on the research that's been carried on that, increased desert numbers, and a place on the international map. Dumfriesda is an exciting opportunity to geographically be the first in last city in Scotland. It is also an exciting opportunity to be the first in currently the city in the south of the Scotland region, and I think that that is vitally important. As Emma Harper said, Dumfriesda is the home of Robert Burns, Peter Pan and Robert de Bruce. Dumfriesda, indeed, the whole of the south of Scotland region has widened expanding areas of forestry, peatland and outdoor green space, which is hugely important on our fight against both the climate and biodiversity emergencies. Dumfriesda and the region is also Scotland's adventure playground, and again, this is where it's really important about trying to attract visitors. It's got world-class hikes, cycle routes, lakes, water areas to care and swim, world on mountain biking facilities, as has been mentioned before, is seven stains. The area is also a well-recognised food and drink sector, including local breweries and gin, whisky, and rum distilleries. I can hear some comments from there. I'll come on to that. Becoming a city can be great for business, tourism and civic pride. According to... I'll come on to that in the intervention. Yeah, of course. I thank my colleague for taking an intervention. I hear the chunterings across the chamber from a sedentary position. But even if Dumfries applies, isn't that part of what we want? You have to have a forward-looking aspirational wish for the town. That is something that people should embrace. I would observe that the chunterings have come from other quarters in the chamber throughout this debate, but Paul MacLennan... Yes, thank you, dip, dip, dip. For that, I'll avoid the chuntering and I'm trying to move on. And a study led by... And this is the most important thing. Becoming a city for business, tourism and civic pride can bring great benefits, and this research has been carried out by the University of Reading, who have no interest in this at all. And a study led by geography professor Dr Steve Mason found that some winners, some past winners of city status, outperformed the regional neighbours in business growth. That included Inverness and Stirling in Scotland, both in Scotland. Now, this is what Oliver Mundell opposes. It really... A beggars belief... A beggars belief research shows that city status brings economic benefits. It beggars belief that you're opposing it for political reasons and no more. The study also found that international firms seeking new bases in the UK are likely to favour... No, I'm sorry. Not on that point. I'm sorry. To favour cities over towns. Inward investment, seeking the best return for their money will be drawn to areas offering large development sites, well-educated workforces and economy-mesened scale. Becoming a city, dump-freece and indeed the wider region, we also have great potential to retain the young workforce because it will bring economic benefits and pride in with jobs with positive destination career outcomes. But it isn't the only benefit. Becoming a city can also be a source of great pride for the tens of thousands of people living in dump-freece. Just look at Britain's small city, St David's, 1,600 people it has. The benefits of city-stayers are clear for all to see. Presiding officer, in conclusion I again congratulate Emma Harper on bringing this debate forward. I welcome the opportunity of dump-freece to be the first in last city in Scotland and I wish dump-freece every success and taking this forward. So it's dump-freece today, maybe dump bar tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you, Mr MacLennan. I now call Finlay Carson who joins us remotely to be followed by Christine Grahame. Four minutes, Mr Carson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. With part of the town of dump-freece falling within my constituents of Galloway and Western Friess, I welcome the opportunity to celebrate and raise the profile of the largest town and seat of the local authority. But disappointed that Paul MacLennan with his feigned outrage suggests that this is anything to do with party politics, but I'm not surprised. But by not supporting a bid does not mean we don't have the highest of aspirations for dump-freece. The term Queen of the South was first used in an address by a local poet David Dunbar who stood in the 1857 general election and this fitting description has become synonymous with the much-loved town. And generations of my family have worked and lived in the town as hoteliers. But for those who have never actually visited dump-freece, can I strongly urge to do so as it's much to offer, not least being the people from the town known often referred to as Dunhamers, being amongst the warmest and friendliest people you could ever meet. Right from the outset, twice, I may not be a supporter of the campaign. I wish to make clear that I have the utmost admiration and gratitude for the campaign behind the bid for the town to be granted city status as part of the eagerly awaited platinum jubilee celebrations. The people's project, led by Mark Jordan, and Mark has said himself, we can make dump-freece and galley with tourist destinations like the Lake District and by doing so attract more business to the region. And he's absolutely right, but people don't go to the Lake District because of the draw of the city of Carlyle. But, instead, the small towns of Keswick and Ambleside with a unique and wonderful rural nature, and that's what the Royal Borough and Market Town of Dumfries selling point should be. Quite how the town was founded remains something of a mystery, but the history books actually suggest that Dumfries was once deemed of much importance by invading Romans. Indeed, many traces of Roman presence in Dumfries and Galley were still being uncovered from coins, weapons, military, earthworms and even roads, and I'm not sure if the A75 was included in that list. The Queen may look favourably on Dumfries as it has strong royal credentials with William the Lion granting a charter to give Dumfries the rank of a royal borough in 1186, recognising its importance at the Market Town and Port. And a royal castle which sadly no longer stands was built in the 13th century and William Wallace chased the fleeing English forces southward through the Nith valley back over the border. And just for good measure, Robert the Bruce Sluheids rivaled the red common at Greyfriars Church in the town in 1306. Thankfully, things are quiet and down of it. And the most famous Scott of all Robert Burns moved to Ellisland near Dumfries and later made the town his home in 1719. So it's 1791. So it's fair to say that Dumfries has a rich historical past. And it would be an understatement just saying that we should do and we do quite rightly celebrate that fact. We've already heard of the list of famous sons and daughters which would be the envy of many cities. But they all came from a rural marketing and we are already on the international map because of that. Emma Harper's emotion suggests that city status could bring benefits socially, financially and culturally and claims that Perth, Stirling and Inverness as a result of city status went from strength to strength. I think that she's got it maybe the wrong way around. And she fails to say exactly what city status could do to deliver more than a successful rural market town could. I believe that Dumfries is a sleeping giant for which too many years have been failed along with the rest of the south of Scotland by successive Scottish Governments. But now is our time. We have the Borderlands growth deal, levelling up funds and most importantly the south of Scotland enterprise who can really be a catalyst to driving improvements and then around the town. And it's important right across our region to the other major town in Gateway, Stranrair. Maybe Emma Harper like our SNP colleagues are forgetting the far west in Stranrair too and it's credentials to be Scotland's next city. But it's only through the type of interventions and policies like the Borderlands that we can achieve greater job creation, increased inward migration, higher visitor numbers and hopefully through the union connectivity review and STPR2 see increased investment and improved transport infrastructure. Dumfries is already a strong marketing force offering outstanding scenery, warm hospitality and amenities that make it the dual of the market towns in Scotland. And that's the title we should seek rather than city status which despite what Ms Harper suggests currently doesn't have the support of many people in Dumfries never mind the rest of the region. But what we do have in Dumfries by the bucket load is a belief that the town can do better and with or without city status we should grab the opportunities that we have right now to make Dumfries once again the happiest and the best place to live, work and play. Thank you Mr Carson and now call final speaker in the open debate Christine Grahame four minutes please. Thank you Deputy Presiding Officer how depressing the conservative contributions have been. Anyway I congratulate my colleague Emma Harper on securing this debate and support her call for Dumfries in its application for city status a campaign she has long been involved in. I congratulate Colin Smith a colleague on the other side of the chamber also in that camp and it seems that it's only the conservatives that oppose it goodness knows why. Now oh I would like I'll let you in can I just need a little bit of pro well why not so you can depress me again. Oliver Mundell That's very kind and very much in the Christmas spirit. I just wonder if Christine Grahame is a veteran of Scottish politics if she thought this was politically popular why would she think the two constituency members representing the region wouldn't be desperate to get behind it the truth is people in Dumfries don't support it. Christine Grahame They're both conservatives and so it is political from you and I have campaigned many issues let me let me make a little progress Mr Mundell because I think you're digging a large hole for yourself. Through the tape please Ms Grahame Now city status is an enigma for example London doesn't have city status but it's comprised of two cities the city of London a city of Westminster so it's a quirky thing the status conferred as others have said by the monarch after advice from the government but it is the monarch's decision and again as has been said by others it usually takes place on a royal ceremonial occasion such as the Queen's platinum jubilee next year the criteria is very loose I won't rehearse it's been raised by others so it doesn't include population in cathedrals but royal connections as you can imagine are handy and Dumfries has knees going back as far as 1186 and William the Lion of Scotland then he granted it royal bar status then in 1395 Robert III by charter granted Dumfries the rights of a town so this might be another monarch granting rights While I refer to Robert let us remember as others have done that Robert Burns spent his last years there from 1796 to his death five years later where his body is now in turn at the born's mouse ileum but I want to turn to Burns creative connections particularly when he was at Ellie's Run Farm which he worked which has now got a complex in the Burns Museum and I've been at Burns nights there myself I'm spoken famously he wrote All Lang Syne there and I don't know a more internationally known song than All Lang Syne yet I don't know if many people would realise it was written in Dumfries and not in Allaway again Afon Kiss again part of the creativity that came from his years there so although Burns when he wrote so much there 130 songs and poems during that short time we was there before he died he may not fit the traditional definition of Rob but he was definitely and remains Scottish royalty in my book city status we'd enhance and remind international travellers of the powerful connection of Burns with Dumfries it's not just Allaway and Burns cottage that's in the frame and finally on a personal note what have I got to do with Dumfries and Galloway well I lived in Minigaff and I taught at the Douglas in Newton's for over a decade both my sons were born in the Creswell maternity hospital now demolished nothing to do my son's been born there both now Gallavadians by birth and I'll always really remember the great next 60 mile journey from Minigaff to the Creswell in a pretty rickety ambulance with my next door neighbour the local midwife who had to have a stop every so often to relieve herself of car sickness thank goodness and delivery skills were not required all route later that night small angus all eight pounds three ounces of him fell asleep and I left the ward and I stood before a floor to ceiling window first time mum and looked out over Dumfries in the darkness and lit up by the street lights and wondered what I'd let myself in for 48 years later with the son now a father himself I'm still wondering what I'll let myself in for so one of my fond memories of Dumfries is that I remember that night very clearly and thinking what a beautiful place it was now mine may not be a royal connection it is my connection and again I thank Emma Harper and Colin Smyth as Dunhamers for at the very least whether this is successful or not shining a bright light on Dumfries whatever the outcome of the bid thank you thank you Mr I now call on the minister to respond to the debate Mr Lockhead for around seven minutes please Can I begin by thanking Emma Harper for lodging this motion she's certainly been a energetic and feisty champion for Dumfries and the south of Scotland and I congratulate her on all her work to make the case for city status for Dumfries which she outlined in her speech and also can I also thank everyone else for their contributions to this debate as well I've learned a lot in terms of the many famous sons and daughters from Dumfries and the fact that it's been a town of invention down the centuries as well and the way in which Emma Harper and others have sold the town I think we should all take a leaf out of Bob Doris's book and perhaps book our summer holidays there at some point in the future as well because they've certainly sold its attractions to the rest of us as well and whatever happens in terms of the the town's bid for city status I think this has been a good opportunity for everyone to talk up the many qualities that Dumfries has We have heard much in the chamber about what makes Dumfries unique and a deserving candidate for city status but of course I know that several towns in Scotland are applying for city status and I wouldn't want in the Scottish Government wouldn't want to choose a favourite I have no doubt that all would be strong favourites or strong candidates and of course I'll have to be extremely careful because as someone who lives in Elgin and who represents Elgin in this Parliament I have to note that Elgin is also bidding for city status indeed it does have a cathedral known as the Lantern of the North it also has too many seagulls which I heard was an attribute for many of the candidates as well and Elgin of course is bidding alongside Dumfries of course but also Dumfermlyn, Greenock, Irvine, Livingston, Oben and St Andrews as well With that saying all that of course today's debate is to discuss Dumfries so I do want to highlight some of the ways in which the Government is already supporting Dumfries and the wider region and of course firstly in April of 2020 we officially launched the South of Scotland Enterprise our economic and community development agency for Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders and already it supported a range of projects and Dumfries itself including £4.8 million of funding to support the PPE manufacturing firm Alffersallway and establishing a new manufacturing hub there and then in March 2021 we signed the Borderlands Inclusive Growth Deal which of course includes Scottish Government investment of up to £85 million in the south of Scotland region over a 10-year period along with £65 million in the UK Government meaning a total investment in Scotland there will be £150 million The project supported by the Borderlands Deal will enhance regional economic performance they will develop the region's tourism offer support innovation in key sectors develop the skills and infrastructure needed to build communities and create jobs and improve digital connectivity across the south as well Oliver Mundell I thank the minister for giving way he's missed one important investment from the list what's happened to dualling and upgrading the A75 under his government 14 years the answer is nothing I thought perhaps the member was going to use the opportunity to celebrate many good policies that have been put in place to support Dumfries and the wider region but I think as my late mom would say the conservatives in this debate to be fair have come across as big trips looking for a puddle and I think that many people will be taken aback by the negativity expressed by some of the members in this debate given I'm sure it's one where there's some consensus in talking up the attributes of Dumfries Dumfries will also benefit from the dairy nexus project which will deliver cutting edge research to facilitate decarbonisation across dairy farming and the centre will be based at SRUC's Barony campus in Dumfries and the Scottish Government's committee £4 million to support this project and through the Borderlands Deal Dumfries and Galloway will also benefit from £5 million of Scottish Government funding committed to the Seven Stains mountain bike network that others mentioned also and that investment will upgrade several of the sites and their associated facilities to encourage users to travel across the region and develop a stronger visitor experience after taking on intervention Emma Harper I thank the minister for taking an intervention I think there is so much going on in the south west you've described the dairy nexus project and then the alpha solway so there is a lot of investment that is happening in Dumfries right now but does the minister agree that even just having an aspiration to apply for the bid is something that could help raise awareness and shine a light on the south of Scotland? I think Emma Harper makes a good point and that is no doubt one of the considerations that all cities or all communities that are bidding for city status have taken into account and after all this is a competition being organised but the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Civic Awards which will of course announce the successful cities next year so clearly that group of people or committee of whoever is taking decisions do feel it's worthwhile for communities to bid for city status and it's the Lord Chancellor who will make a recommendation to the Queen in due course so again I think others do believe that there are benefits to be acquired from city status I also want to just say given we are against the backdrop of Covid at Dumfries has also played its role in the national effort against the pandemic and the economic and community recovery from its scarring effects as well and the Scottish Government has provided £55,000 to the Stove Network Scotland's only arch-led development trust to mitigate the impact of the pandemic through increasing skills, knowledge and availability of shared resources for community-led activity as well again our high streets have been particularly impacted by the pandemic and I think someone mentioned empty shops in many of our communities across the country and the mid-steeple quarter is a community-led initiative seeking to breathe new life into Dumfries Town Centre by developing a section of the high street as a contemporary living, working, socialising, learning and enterprise in quarter and it aims to see the local community take control of and refurbish underused and neglected high street buildings another issue I know that Emma Harper is taking a very close interest in as well and that initiative receives £300,000 in the Scottish Government through investment from the South of Scotland economic partnership and will receive on-going support through the South of Scotland enterprise as well The regeneration work that we are seeing supporting Dumfries Town Centre is a great example of what we want to see across Scotland and we aim to achieve that through our place-based investment programme Local people have stepped up with very ambitious plans for revitalising the Town Centre they have identified opportunities for bringing buildings back into sustainable uses and these solutions are promoting inclusive economic development with community wealth as a key theme so I want to close by recognising the efforts of the people and organisations on Dumfries and I particularly like to recognise the considerable work done by Dumfries and Galloway Council in preparing the bid Dumfries is, as we have heard described many times today, a wonderful town it is a strong sense of community in a unique historical, cultural and civic heritage it is business-based from food and drink to agriculture to tourism to manufacturing it is dynamic and full of innovation As it is, as Mrs Harper stated the town of Bruce of Burns and of GM Barrie who based the world of Peter Pan on the gardens of Moatbury House now an attractive tourist destination as well so if Dumfries is successful in its bid it will I know become a wonderful city so best of luck to Dumfries and of course the other candidates as well many people are working hard to make their bids a success and I'm sure Parliament will want to wish them all the best Thank you very much indeed Minister, that concludes the debate and I close this meeting of Parliament


Hi there today on Typical Books we're going to be talking about new releases, new books coming out in January. And there aren't a lot of them which is kind of nice because that makes my job really quick. And I get to talk about a couple books that came out previously and one book coming out in February. So I don't know what is on your list but it seemed to me that doing the new releases page on the Horror Writers Association website horror.org. There was a lot of books that were out in October that people were announcing in November and December and still here in January. Not a lot of books coming out in January. Even the February list is looking pretty slim. Now you can look all over the internet and get all kinds of books coming out in January but I mean specific types of horror books and not a lot caught my eye so far. But Metal Demon by Julie Heiner. This is an Alberta chapter horror writers association author and this book Metal Demon comes out from killers and demons and it came out in December on the 20th of December. So not too far along. Like we're only at this point about 12 days into January. It's not like the whole month has gone and December 20th wasn't that long ago.  That's one thing that's really caught my eye here. Elaine is a demon feasting on death metal singers. Sage is the singer for soiled carcass. During a performance at Bad Idol, I guess that's the name of the bar, he blacks out and hits the stage.  Will he get a grip on his sanity or succumb to the demon invading his mind? When their worlds collide a possession of primal death metal extremes unfolds. So yeah, the cover may be this 666 year old demon. I don't know or it could be the death metal singer himself. You know it's just a lovely visage. Either way, on January 11th we have a craft book. And this, you'll find it on horror.org, the Horridges Association page under new releases as well. This is a craft book. It comes from Crystal Lake Publishing. It's called Shadows and Ink, Mastering the Art of Horror Writing and Publishing Volume 1. So I'm looking forward to the rest of this. So January 11th, the first volume comes out. I don't know much about it so I don't know when the other ones come out. But this says, dive into the dark and thrilling world of horror writing. Okidoki with Shadows and Ink, a comprehensive guide designed to transform your chilling tales into masterpieces that captivate and terrify. Authored by a seasoned and award-winning publisher editor in the genre, so it is just Joe Minehard. This book is your gateway to crafting stories that linger in the minds and nightmares of your audience. Yeah, ok, so hey, maybe if you're tired of reading books you can now write them. I know there's a lot of authors already that watch this channel, a lot of my friends and other writers do have booktube channels. So if you're interested in honing your craft, or if you've never written a short story and wanted to take a crack at it at the very least, or maybe you have a novel sitting in your heart, then Shadows and Ink. So before we get any deeper into this, I just need a little drink to wet my whistle. Morticia Adams, Funko Pop soda, putting the pop back in Funko Pop as it were. I was quite confused when my husband came by, he popped by, no pun intended, with this little tiny Morticia Adams who will now grace my shelf. She is cutting the tip off of a little rose as is her way and I really enjoy it. At the risk of becoming a lifestyle channel, this is the only Funko Pop I really like. We have a couple in the house, very few, we're not big Funko Pop fans, and this doesn't even look like a Funko Pop. So I think that's the thing I like the most about it, and the can, I mean as packaging, that's super cool. So I digress. Back to books coming out in January. So another book that caught my eye that was not on the list of the HWA stuff, so I don't know, but I recognize this author's name. This is a January 8th release called Perverted Little Freak by Rick Wood, and the title caught my eye as you should know. And the cover, oh my god, the cover doesn't the look remind you of the very end of Sleepaway Camp when Angela is doing the scream, the quite famous scream that frozen in time kind of scream on the beach. That's what this look reminds me of. This cover, unbelievable. I love this, I love everything about this. Though Adam doesn't think she's boring, she met him on the internet and she really likes him, so she arranges to meet him. But Adam isn't who he says he is. He lures her to a hotel room with promises of romance, then locks the door and brutally assaults her.  That's a great beginning to a book. I hope that's not the whole story. If that's the whole story, they're really gonna have to pull the taffy during the however many pages of Perverted Little Freak, but I am very interested. This comes out from Blood Splatter Books. I don't recognize the name of that publisher. I swear I recognize the name of this author, Rick Wood, but I love the title, Perverted Little Freak. I love the cover. This is fantastic. This harkens back to some sort of 80s exploitation horror that I just need to sink my teeth into. And the very next day, January 9th, if you think that I don't take horror seriously by loving a book like Perverted Little Freak, we have Rose Murray's Baby, a rerelease of Rose Murray's Baby. Now, of course, this has been released before Ira Levin's classic Rose Murray's Baby, a gorgeous book. This is a one with a very interesting cover, very plain, very typographic cover, the upside down carriage at this time, a little bit of a twist on it. Maybe this is the 2024 irony kicking in with this cover, but I love the cover, a very, very graphic cover. Rose Murray Woodhouse, as we all know, and her struggling actor husband guy are thrilled to move into the Bramford, a sought after Manhattan apartment building prize for his Victorian details and gargoyle facade, and become acquainted with their overly attentive neighbors, the cast ofette's unspoken tensions enter into the young couple's relationship with a forward by Chuck Palinac and an afterward by R.L. Stein. So I think that that is the real selling thing here, the real feature. If you have been sleeping on Rose Murray's Baby, call a doctor, it's probably suffocated. And haven't read it yet, I mean rather, definitely pick up this new copy. Like, what more would you want than an intro from, of all people, Chuck Palinac. That's not who I would have pegged for the intro, but I'm very excited to read it. And R.L. Stein, I was talking with my husband just recently about some books you pick up simply for that afterward or the forward, whatever it is, and you can't find that essay as it is anywhere else really. So I think this is one of those you'll need to pick it up to see what these great authors have to say about this classic piece of horror fiction. On January 12th, coming from Cemetery Dance, we have The Winslow Sisters by Michael Aronovitz. And I like the cover of this as well. Talking typographically, we have a really cool stretched out serif font that kind of fades in a gradient from teal aquamarine kind of blue to verdant kind of green, like a kelly green. And that's an unsettling combination of blues and greens if you ask me with some kind of floating heads, weird juxtapositions on the cover. I like it. It's a shadowy intriguing cover. It's kind of cliche, horror wise, but I like the color combinations with this font quite a lot. So serial killer Michael Leonard Robinson murdered 13 college co-eds in early 2018, impaling them on flagpoles and leaving them on highway construction job sites for the purpose of haunting the dawn rush hour. Yikes. Police called him the scarecrow killer until he revealed in an otherwise cryptic note left for police on March 13th, 2018, that he thought of his dolls more as sculptures. Okay, it almost reads like I'm talking like a true crime story and thank god it's not. At least I hope it's not. If it is, let me know in the comments because wow, very intriguing to read this, like the cover. I'm not sure I've heard of anything else by this author. I'll have to check out Sumitari Dance website and see for more. Coming up on January 16th, we have Best Horror of the Year, number 15 edited by Ellen Datlow. We look forward to this every year. I don't really collect them. I have quite a few on my shelves, but I do need them all. I need more. I want to have them all. And according to the description from Ellen Datlow, the Venerable Queen of Horror Anthologies per The New York Times, comes a new entry in the series that has brought you thrilling stories from Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and the best horror stories available on the list of a bunch of other authors that have been in previous incarnations, but the TOC, the Table of Contents, is published on Ellen Datlow's website if you're interested. And this features Angela Slatter, Jeffrey Ford, Gary Kilworth, Stephen Tose, Livia Llewellyn, Stephen Duffy, Tanan Rivedu, Andy Davidson, Daniela Tomova, Allison Littlewood, Jordan Shively, David Surface, Gemma Files, Gary McMahon, Gemma Amor, Stephanie M. Vitovich, Charlie Hughes, Margo Langan, Luigi Mussolino, James D. Jenkins, Jacob Stephen Moore, and John Langan. So yeah, a really great list this year. I didn't trip up on pronouncing too many of those names. So yeah, looking forward to it as ever, every single year. Best Horror of the Year, volume 15, with the cool cover. It's not the coolest cover of all the best horror covers, there has been cooler. Maybe it is just like a 20-24 thing. We're all kind of heading into this year kind of like, man. On January 16th, from Delacorte, we have A Place for Vanishing by Anne Freistat. And this is an author that is new to me. I've never heard of them before. The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That's what Libby's mom said. And after Libby's recent bipolar diagnosis, the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows that she and her family need to find a new normal. But Libby's new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt the winding halls. Towering stained glass windows feature strange and sectile designs. And the garden teems with impossibly blue roses. And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to this house, stretching back over a century to its very first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds. It's like every line in that description just got more and more intriguing to me. I like the cover. It's pretty plain, very colorful, but neat, typographically speaking. I like the use of that kind of hard edge, Verdana style San Serif font as ever. But yeah, it's an interesting juxtaposition of blah happening on the cover with like insects and flowers. Everyone likes a little bit of color, even me from time to time. And that's really it. There's not a lot coming out in this month. So I'm going to jump to February where maybe next month when I do another one of these videos, I will talk about it all over again. But there's a new Dean Coons book coming out and I don't know how often Dean Coons releases books, but it seems like it's been a bit to me like or it just has he released a book every single year and I've been totally out to lunch on that. It feels like he hasn't put out a book in 10 years, but I'll have to look and see if I'm right because when I saw this I thought wow, it feels like a blast from the past because he's been writing so long. We have quite a few masters of horror here. We've talked about Ira 11 and we've talked about all the ones that are featured in the best horror of the year, volume 15. But we have Dean Coons, a really great classic horror author that I have not read enough of, but I'm going to pick up the Bad Weather friend. It's coming February 1st. Benny Katzpa's perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiance and his favorite chair. He's not paranoid. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn't know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he's never heard of. A giant crate and a video message. Oh, this is such horror cliche already, but he's the master, right? He'll steer us straight. All will be well in time. So how strange, though it's a blessing, his uncle promises, stranger yet is what's inside the crate. He's a seven foot tall, self-described Bad Weather friend named Spike, whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. He'll deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn't such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation. So I guess Benny Katzpa, interesting name, finds out who is out to get him and sticks Spike on him. But I'm just inferring that from a kind of poorly written synopsis. It's interestingly written at the beginning, but the end just sort of gets kind of all over the place, I think. But hey, really plain, sans-sera, bold typography over a multi-colored cover that reminds me almost of Mr. Mercedes or something like that or Insomnia. It's like it has some Stephen King vibes in that weird shadowy picture for whatever reason. But it is a departure for me because I've never read a lot of Dean Coons. Dean Coons used to be in the house all the time when I was a kid. Maybe I'll jump into some older Dean Coons. Now of course I haven't finished reading all the books on my 25 Read What You Own Challenge yet, so I won't be like picking this up. It's pre-ordered and anything else that I'd pre-ordered is just sitting in stasis right now until I finish reading. Right now I'm reading The Only One Left by Riley Sager and enjoying it so very much. That came as a book of the month club selection like two months ago, so I'm finishing reading that and then I'll have a tally soon. So my next video will be catching up on what I read of the 25 books off my shelf, how many more I have yet to go, and then by then will probably be in February. So there'll be more new horror releases to come. Are any of these already on your list or have you read them already via something like Nat Galley or Advance Reader copies? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you very much for watching and have an oaky spooky day.


classes, we been looking at the various steps that are involved in IC fabrication. We saw that we could broadly divide them into four main types. One was layering, where layering means you are trying to grow a thin film on top of your wafer. Then we had doping, so doping is the addition of selected impurities to your wafer in order to create say a p-type region or an n-type region. Doping of course is important if you want to create devices like say a p-n junction or a transistor. The third one was lithography. So lithography is important because this is used in order to define the dimensions of the device and also to pattern the various devices that ultimately form part of your integrated circuit. And we also had the last one that was heat treatment which comes along with all the other three processes. So we could broadly divide the various steps in IC fabrication into these four categories and we saw each of them in detail. Today we are going to look at the evaluation of the IC fabrication process. So we are going to look at both process and device evaluation. So process evaluation is something very critical and if you think about it a typical IC fabrication process starts with a blank wafer at the end of the process. So the blank wafer goes through various fabrication processes. You can think of this in terms of an assembly line. At the end of this you get the finished integrated circuit. So usually this is a die and a given wafer can have many dies. For example a typical 12 inch wafer can have a few 100 dies. Each die represents one finished integrated circuit. So starting from the blank wafer to the finished circuit there are usually 500 odd processes. So these processes could be the layering or doping or lithography or heat treatment. But there are typically around 500 odd processes and the whole thing can take approximately one month. So even if any of this processes even if one of them goes wrong and has a defect that defect can ultimately destroy the finished integrated circuit. So even one defect and those kinds of defects which will ultimately destroy the electrical functionality of the die are called killer defects.  So because of this your device or a process evaluation is very important and it is usually done at each and every stage of the process to make sure that the finished that the wafers are getting exact treatment that they are intended to get. So process evaluation is done throughout and this is sort of obvious because if you have approximately 500 processes and we do not do an evaluation and the end product is bad. It is very hard to go back and pinpoint which of the processes is essentially bad. So process evaluation is done throughout. So after each and every step it is carried out. Typically process evaluation is done on different kinds of wafers. So the first one is the process wafer. Another name for this is your product wafer. So you can do evaluation directly on the product wafer. Sometimes within the product wafer certain dies called test dies are also fabricated and then evaluation is done on these test dies. So that the entire wafer is not evaluated but only certain dies or certain sections of the wafer are evaluated. So it can be done on test dies on product. Apart from that you can also have something called blank wafers which can also be used for monitoring. So these are the kind of wafers where evaluation is carried out during the process. When the process is done and you get the finished integrated circuit electrical testing is also done on the finished product. To understand this process evaluation a bit more we can divide the various processes that take place during IC fabrication into two main types. So if you look at an IC fabrication process it can either be a batch process or it can be a serial process. So this is one broad way of classifying the processes. A batch process is one where more than one wafer is processed at the same time. So you have more than one wafer.  A typical example of a batch process is a furnace operation. For example we have looked at the layering process and one of the processes we looked at during layering was oxide growth. In the case of oxide growth the sample is heated in a furnace and usually either dry oxygen which is just pure oxygen or wet ox which is steam is used in order to form and grow an oxide layer on the silicon wafer. So this is an typical example of a batch process where multiple wafers are processed at the same time so that they see the same environment. So oxide growth is an example of a batch process. Not all of these wafers are product wafers. So along with the product wafers some blank wafers or test wafers are also used and these test wafers can then be evaluated. Because they receive the same treatment as that of the product wafers by measuring the test wafers we can get an idea of how the film is grown on the product wafers. So here blank wafers and these are usually flats. Flats means these are just bare wafers with nothing else on them. So blank wafers are used for monitoring. So a typical oxide furnace can have anywhere between 100 to 125 wafers. Out of these 4 or 5 of wafers are used for monitoring. The rest of the wafers some of those are product wafers and there are also usually baffles or again bare wafers that are put at the edges of the furnace in order to use for regulating the temperature and also for regulating the flow of the gas. So furnace operation is an example of a batch process. The other type of process is a serial process. In this the wafers are processed serially. So one at a time. So an example of a serial process could be polishing. We talked about chemical mechanical polishing which is part of planarization. So chemical mechanical polishing could be example of a serial process doping. If doping is carried out by ion implantation and not by thermal diffusion that could be an example of a serial process. So I will just say ion implantation or etching. Again this could be an example of dry etching. We also saw dry etching earlier. So that is an example of a serial process. So in this case the wafers are processed one at a time. So here again you could use blank wafers in order to monitor the process continuity to make sure that there is no variation from one wafer to the other. But actually each wafer is processed differently. So here evaluation is not only carried out on the blank wafers but also carried out on the process wafers to make sure that the process is running smoothly. And also blank wafers and blank wafers are used in order to make sure that the process repeatability is good. So far we have seen what process and device evaluation is and how it is carried out whether you have a batch process or whether you have a serial process. So let us look more closely at the evaluation process itself. We usually define process evaluation as part of metrology where metrology is nothing but the measurement of physical surface features. So if you look at fabrication some of the important parameters that need to be measured and again if you look at physical surface features it could be pattern widths especially in lithography. The depth so if you have films of different thicknesses so the film depth or film thickness the presence of any defects or contamination. So defect concentration the location of these defects are also important because if a defect is located on a metal line it could cause a short and a short would basically lead to the destruction of the IC defect making it a killer defect. So defect concentration, defect location or all important parameters that need to be measured. Another parameter is your pattern registry. So this refers to the fact again we saw in lithography we have multiple mass and all of these mass have to be aligned on top of each other so that the final device is formed. So this alignment is referred to as pattern registry. So these are some of the important parameters that need to be evaluated at almost each and every step of the IC device fabrication. What metrology should tell us is whether the wafers that pass through a given step are good enough in order to move on to the next step. So information we are looking for is whether the wafers are good enough and let me underline that move to the next step. So if you think of a fabrication process with more than 500 steps and I am at step 10 the metrology should tell me whether the wafers can move from step 10 to step 11 or whether they have some defects that need to be addressed and fixed before the wafers can move to the next step. So we are looking for an evaluation process that has to be fast. Fast is important because we saw that a typical IC fabrication can take up to a month and if you now add in process and device evaluation we want it to be fast or else it will again increase the overall time of fabrication. This is not good because we know time equals money in any factory so that if you increase the process time you also increase the cost of the product. So we want an evaluation process that is fast and we also want an evaluation product that is conclusive so that it should be able to tell you that okay your wafers are good and they are good to move on to the next step or they are bad and then they need to go and get some sort of defect treatment before they move to the next step or they should be scrapped or deleted from the line. So based upon process and device evaluation you usually define something called a process window. So a process window defines the acceptable range of parameters for that particular process. So to give an example let us go back to the batch process we saw earlier which is a furnace operation to grow an oxide. So if you think about oxide growth the important process parameter is the thickness of the oxide layer. Any furnace operation can also cause defects in your sample so a defect density is another parameter. So these two are the process parameters and then based upon the final device there is usually a range of thickness value and also a maximum amount of defect that is permissible within the wafer. So there is an acceptable range for both thickness and the defect level and because a furnace operation is a batch process when more than one wafer is processed at a time these can be measured on the blank wafers or flat wafers and whatever is measured on those is transported directly to your product wafers. So if the measurement on the blank wafers are good then it means that the measurement on the product wafers is also good and then these wafers can then move to the next step. So this is one of the advantages of having a batch process because the measurements are not carried out directly on the product but on the blank wafers. The drawback of course is if there is a problem with the process which causes either a thickness shift or a high level of density because it is a batch process you will essentially affect more than one wafer which means the wafers have to be scrapped when we say scrap those wafers are condemned and destroyed.  So if you think about a furnace operation with say 125 wafers typically 100 wafers of product so that if the furnace operation goes bad we would essentially scrap 100 product wafers which will again lead to increase cost. So that is the one drawback if you have a batch process. So far we have looked at defining a process window. We will now look at some of the process evaluation types then we will look at each of those in detail. So what are some of the process evaluations or measurements that are carried out? The first kind of measurement of course is electrical measurement or electrical testing. This is important because at the end we are manufacturing an electronic device. So the electrical characteristics of the device is very important. So electrical testing is carried out not only during the process but when the finished integrated circuit is formed electrical testing is also carried out to make sure that the device or the chip functions the way it is supposed to function. You also have measurements of physical parameters and we just saw an example of this. For example if you look at an oxide the thickness of the oxide would be an example of a physical parameter and the third type of measurement that is carried out is the defect measurement. All three are carried out for each and every process in the IC fabrication scheme. For example usually defect measurement is carried out for almost all processes. Electrical testing is carried out only at select locations when certain portions of the device are defined. For example if you do doping and you want to measure the dopant concentration you can use can get that by the electrical testing process. We will see that in a minute. Similarly physical parameter measurement is usually carried out when you are doing some sort of a layering where you are growing a layer or when you are trying to remove a layer by say etching or when you are doing lithography and you are trying to define a pattern. So combinations of these measurements are usually made at various steps of the processes. The combination again depends on the fact that the measurement has to be fast and it has to tell us whether the wafers are good enough to move to the next step. So let us first look at electrical measurements. So the simplest example of an electrical measurement is of course measurement of resistance. So resistance or more commonly resistivity measurement. One way to measure resistance is by using a 4 point probe. So this consists of 4 probes, 2 probes for measuring the voltage, 2 probes for sourcing the current. So that resistance is nothing but voltage over current. So to give an example of a 4 point measurement consider a wafer substrate and usually have a thin film or a layer on top and you want to measure the resistance or the resistivity of this layer. So there are 2 probes, one for measuring voltage and 2 probes for sourcing the current. So in this particular case the resistance of the film or the layer is approximately given by V over I. There is usually some constant term that is given in the front which depends upon the geometry of the 4 point probe arrangement but typical resistance is V over I and from the resistance you can also calculate the resistivity. If you know the length of the probes and the cross sectional area. So rho here is the resistivity. So 4 point probe is usually used for measuring the resistance of a film or layer. It is also called in plane resistance or sheet resistance and this process works if the resistivity of the film or the layer is lower than the resistivity of the substrate. So this means most of the current passes through the film and does not pass through the substrate. So 4 point probe is usually used for measuring say the resistivity of thin films that are deposited. For example you can have a metal film that is deposited on a silicon. Metal usually has a much lower resistivity on the resistance compared to the silicon. So that the current flows through the film. Similarly if you dope a specific layer of the substrate so that you have a dope layer with a lower resistance that again can be measured using a 4 point probe. Let us look at some of the other electrical measurements that are done. You can also use electrical measurements for measuring the concentration or depth profile of dopants. So concentration or depth profile this is usually done in conjunction with doping. For example if you have a P type material and you dope a certain region that is N type. We can measure the depth of the N type region and also the depth of the P in junction by looking at electrical resistivity. This is again usually done by creating a bevel on the surface so that this is usually a destructive technique. So we start off with a P type material. We have doped a certain region of this material N type up to a certain depth so that we now have your P in junction. We can find the depth of this P in junction by etching a bevel onto your wafer. This is again usually done by using lithography in order to expose a certain portion of the wafer which is then etched through and then measuring the resistance as a function of length along the bevel. So as you move along the bevel length you are also moving down in thickness so you can measure the resistance and relate that to the concentration. So I will directly plot the concentration. So near your surface you have an N type region as you go closer to the P in junction. We know the electrons and holes recombine forming a depletion region and the concentration dops beyond the P in junction. Once again the concentration increases because now you have your P type material. So by forming these bevels and again looking at resistance we can use this in order to calculate the depth profile of doping. Another technique for measuring doping profiles is called SIMS which is secondary ion mass spectrometer or mass spectroscopy. So this is again a technique for measuring the concentration of dopants. It is much more accurate than the bevel technique because you directly measure the concentration but it is again a destructive technique and it is lot more slower. So techniques like SIMS which is your secondary ion mass spectroscopy can be used as an offline technique for say qualifying a new tool, a new dopant tool that is come into the fab rather than using it as an inline technique for process or device evaluation. Usually techniques based on resistances are much more quicker than techniques based on SIMS. So these are some examples of techniques that are used that are based upon electrical measurement. You will now look at some techniques that are based on physical measurement that is film thickness, film widths and heights and so on. So we look at physical measurement methods and the most important of those is the layer thickness. Usually in the case of IC fabrication one of the processes is layering. So in layering we grow a thin layer of another material on top of a wafer and it is important to know the thickness of that layer. So one simple method which is used in order to measure the thickness of these thin films is the fact that these films are colored and by looking at the color it is possible to approximately calculate the thickness of the film. This idea is essentially called white light interferometry. So consider a wafer with a thin film on top. So this could be a film of an oxide layer or a nitride layer. So white light were to form, were to fall on the film. Some of the light will be reflected from the top surface of the film. Some of it will penetrate through and then get reflected from the wafer. These two lights that come out from different depths can essentially interfere and depending upon the thickness some of the wavelengths will undergo destructive interference. Some of the wavelengths will undergo constructive interference. So even though you have a white light that comes in your output essentially has some color. So by looking at the color of the film it is possible to approximately calculate the thickness. So this is the basic idea behind white light interferometry. It is mainly used for films like oxides and nitrides where there is no absorption in the visible region but the band gap is usually in the UV region and for measuring thin layers typically less than 500 nm. The color in the case of white light interferometry depends upon the film. So it depends upon the index of reflection. It depends upon the viewing angle. So whether you view the film from top or from the side will matter because it will change the distance or the path length of the light through the film and also the film thickness. To give some values consider an oxide overhead viewing. So your angle you are looking right down so that the angle is 90 degrees. So consider overhead viewing of an oxide layer. So depending upon thickness we will write the thickness in micrometers. You can have different values of color. So if your thickness is 75 nanometers 0.075 your color can be brown 0.075. So 1 it is violet 0.2 it is gold 0.3 it is blue and so on. So as your thickness increases the whole thing will again cycle. So white light interferometry is an approximate technique it is not very exact but it is an approximate technique for estimating the thickness of the film. Based upon white light interferometry there is another technique for measuring thickness which is called a spectrophotometer. Once again this is based on the same principle except that a monochromatic light is used. So here you have an example of a film of some thickness T. Light falls on this some angle theta. The light gets refracted where it gets reflected from the bottom surface and then once again undergoes refraction. This angle is theta prime. So if T is the thickness of the film your path difference for constructive interference is an integral multiple of the wavelength. So this is for constructive and for destructive interference it is an odd multiple. So by changing the wavelength of the light it is possible to produce fringes of light and dark bands and from knowing the fringes and from measuring the value of m it is possible to calculate the thickness. So thickness T nothing but delta m for 2 fringes divided by 2 square root of n square minus sin square theta n is the refractive index of your material 1 over lambda 2 minus lambda 1. So delta m is the number of fringes between 2 wavelengths lambda 1 and lambda 2 where you have constructive interference n is the refractive index and T is the thickness of the film. So this takes the idea of white light interferometry but by using a monochromatic light gives you a much more accurate measurement of thickness. There are some other ways of measuring thickness. One more technique is the ellipsometry technique. This uses polarized light instead of your normal unpolarized light. So that when light passes through a thin film and gets reflected it also gets rotated. So changing the polarization and this change in polarization is a function of both the refractive index n and the thickness T. So once again by measuring the change in polarization it is possible to calculate the thickness. So ellipsometry is especially useful if you have stacks of different films of different thicknesses so that by putting in the values of the stack you can calculate the individual thicknesses. So it is useful when you have multi layers. For example you can have an oxide layer on top of a nitride and so on. Another way of measuring thickness called profilometry. So in this case you measure the surface topography. So there is a stylus that moves across the surface. So that if you have a film that is deposited on the surface you will essentially have a step and by measuring the step height you can calculate the film thickness. An offshoot of the profilometry technique is the optical profilometer where instead of a stylus you now have a laser beam that scans the surface and this laser beam will get reflected of a step and based upon the reflection we can calculate the step height. So whether you have ellipsometer ellipsometry or whether you have profilometry especially optical profilometry or you have interferometry all of these are really fast techniques that can be used in order to measure film thickness. So one of these techniques are usually integrated along with the process evaluation in order to measure the film thickness. The last one we want to look at is the measurement of defects or contamination. So when we look at defects or contaminants on a surface some of the important parameters we like to know. One is the size and shape of the defects, the density of the defects. So how many they are on the surface? The location of the defects especially on product wafers because once again you can have defects at certain critical locations which can destroy the dye and also the chemistry or the nature of the defect. So the simplest way to look at defect density is some sort of a visual inspection. So this can be done with the naked eye but now we know that we have devices whose dimensions are of the order of nanometers. So typical defects are also of the order of tens of nanometers. So simple visual inspection with the eye is not possible. So usually some sort of a microscopy is used and because we have defects of the size of nanometers usually a scanning electron microscopy or SEM we will not go into the details of an SEM but an SEM also has an attachment for X-ray analysis. This is called EDACS, Energy Differsive X-ray Analysis and this can be used to get information on the chemistry of the defects. So by using an SEM you not only get information about the size, density and location but later we can also go and get specific chemical information about the defects. So a typical SEM arrangement consists of an electron source. There are usually lenses in order to focus the beam and scan it on the surface, electron lenses then you have the wafer. There is some sort of a detector which is used for imaging. The whole thing is evacuated. So the electron beam is scanned on to the wafer surface and wherever you have defects the images of the defects are collected and these are used to calculate the density and the concentration. Sometimes in the case of patterned wafers the SEM image of the patterned wafer is compared with the image of the ideal wafer so that we can look for defects during patterning. So SEM is usually used for defect monitoring in line because it is a fast technique but it does not provide any cross sectional information for doing cross sectional information TEM or transmission electron microscopy is used but that is an offline technique. So today we have looked at three main measurement techniques one for measuring electrical resistivity, the other for measuring physical parameters typically a thickness of a film but you can also use it for measuring the dimensions for example the width and the area of the films and finally defect measurements mainly using an SEM. All of these are used during the various steps of the process in order to evaluate the wafers and find out whether these wafers are good or bad for subsequent measurement. So the next class we are going to look at product yield or process yield where we see how good a particular IC fabrication process is.


Do we know what makes us happy? A lot of the time we don't. Now of course I know that if my kid gets a great report on his report card, I know that makes me happy, it does make me happy. On the other hand, these are not trivial things. Everybody thinks they've got Blue Monday, actually. It's not really true. Everybody thinks that a variety of things that have a big impact on them don't really. And Wilson has also shown that people are terrible about predicting what kinds of effects on things in life. So you've got people who are college students who are dating and you ask them, what do you think, what would it do to you if this were to break up? Miserable, I wouldn't be able to hold my head up, I couldn't sleep and so on. Actually, that's not true. Are the unpleasantness only lasts for a small amount of time? Or you ask people who are just coming into a university freshman, what if you got dorm X? What do you think it would mean to you? So my God, that's terrible, it's dark, it's gloomy, the people that are boring, it would wreck my life. Actually, they're no less happy. Even, everybody assumes they'd be thrilled and delighted forever if they won the lottery. That only lasts for a few weeks and actually lottery winners end up being less happy than they were before. I mean, the neighbors are begging them for money, et cetera. The flip is true as well, I think it happens for death. One's own. That would be interesting, but death doesn't, bereavement doesn't last as long or it's not as bad as we think it predict would be. Breavement doesn't, if you ask people, what do you think it would do to you to become paraplegic, couldn't move you like, people take it for granted that would wreck their lives? And of course, it's terrible for a while, but eventually, I mean, they're never as happy as they were before or as the average person, but the misery does not last. And they find pleasure in things that we don't. They say, I enjoyed brushing my teeth today. So, I mean, there's Wilson and Dan Gilbert, his colleague, have a notion that we don't understand how good our psychological immune system is. That is ways we have of lifting ourselves up and we don't know what the hell is going on. Dissonance reduction is one. Somebody moves from the Midwest to California, but it's a different job and he has to go to a small house and so on. How do I, he's gonna lose some things, but he reduces dissonance by saying, who wants to take care of a big house like I had in the Midwest and the weather here just covers a multitude of sins and so on. So we're very good at rationalizing, explaining away, making things better than we think we could. So, and they have a concept of immune neglect. We don't understand that about ourselves. We don't understand that we will adapt. It's amazing how ignorant we are of things that are really important to us and how much we insist that we know why these things happened or would happen. My favorite study in this whole line of work was done with Harvard women. They were asked for a period of a month, maybe more, to at the end of each day, say, how good was your day? I mean, how happy were you? How satisfied were you? And then they answered a number of other questions to evaluate what went on during the day or just report what day of the week was it?  How did the work go? How much sleep did you get? Et cetera. And now at the end of all of this, you can see how much these things actually affected their mood. And you ask people, oh, by the way, would you just be interested in knowing how much you think each of these things influenced your mood in general? There was no correlation whatsoever between the actual impact of these things on people's mood and people's reports about the mood. And if instead of saying, how much did these things affect you, you would say, let's take a hypothetical person, Jane. Tell me how you think each of these things would affect him. Well, she gives the same answer that she would have given for herself. She's no more right about Jane than she is about herself. But we have a conviction that we know things like, I mean, you're telling me, I don't know what makes me happy or unhappy. I mean, give me a break. Sorry, can't give you a break. My name is Richard. I think about inference.


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What's going on everyone? Sam here with late in sports cards ripping one box of 22 a Panini obsidian football hobby for Adam W So good luck Adam 22 obsidian football.  I'm a big fan of that seller there's a Charlie Kohlar for the Ravens to 75 and a green TJ Watt to 25 Volcanics The Steelers got the Zeke Elliott base First hit 12 of 100 Jersey numbered of Delish Jones, Jr. Get this guy out of here Got Dalvin Cook that is atomic material to 125 for the Vikings So in there, we've got Greg dual stitch to 99 orange color match auto for the Broncos great dual stitch. Yeah, I got you. I got you Joshua. I'll just I'll share it to you after this break 89 of 99 Christian Watson Jersey auto for the I don't know how to pick Or the Packers That will do it for your break there Adam. Thanks again, my friend. We'll get them right out to you, buddy