SEECS Colloquium

Silicon technology evolution continues at an increasing pace. The need for improved circuit performance and ever-higher levels of circuit integration necessitate aggressive feature size scaling and the introduction into the manufacturing environment of novel materials. In the process, existing materials are being pushed to their physical and electrical limits while the long-term implications of the use of newer materials are not fully understood. One of the major concerns for future technology development is the maintenance of the high level of reliability that the industry has attained. This talk will provide an overview of the major silicon - related reliability issues for advanced semiconductor technologies. The emphasis will be on the physical understanding of failure modes relevant to the advanced transistor structures and the new materials used in the latest generations of silicon integrated circuit technology.