A high performance 0.12 /spl mu/m CMOS with manufacturable 0.18 /spl mu/m technology
High-performance 0.12 /spl mu/m CMOS devices with manufacturable 0.18 /spl mu/m technology are presented. A nominal I/sub dsat/N/P of 950/410 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m at an I/sub off/ of 12 nA//spl mu/m is achieved by reducing the body effect. The double-sidewall structure developed can reduce gate-fringe capacitance without increasing the junction leakage, and the inverter delay of 11 ps/stage is achieved at a nominal L/sub gate/ of 0.12 /spl mu/m. Small 6T-SRAM cells of 3.1 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ with 0.5 /spl mu/m gate pitch are implemented using a vertical well isolation and a self-aligned contact (SAC). In the SAC process, a blanket Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ layer used as an etching stopper is optimized for the I/sub dsat/N/P ratio and the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) reliability. The 9-level interconnection is optimized to reduce a long wire RC-delay.
Improvement of thermal stability of via resistance in dual damascene copper interconnection
Thermal stability of via resistance in the multilevel dual damascene Cu interconnection was investigated. The via resistance stability strongly depends on via size, via density and width of connecting Cu wires. The significant via-resistance shift was introduced by stress-induced voiding. To avoid the voiding failure, optimization of heat treatments after electroplating (EP)-Cu deposition are necessary for both stability of Cu films and adhesion of barrier layer with Cu. Thermal stress balance between Cu wires and inter-level-dielectric (ILD) is also important to suppress the via degradation. The dual damascene structure with lower-stress and lower-Young's modulus ILD films such as FSG can provide wider process windows for the stability of the via resistance.
Robust solutions of inverse problems in electromagnetic non-destructive evaluation
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is the application of physical measurement technology based on energy interaction with the material and its nonconformities. The material's response is sensed by transducers and sensors which?in most cases?scan the component and document the results in inspection images. However, NDT measures a physically defined quantity or even an intrinsic property. The difference between non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and NDT is in the interpretation of the inspection data. NDE has to discuss the inspection results in terms of quality elements and characteristics which are relevant to describe the fitness of the material for use. In the case of macroscopic defects these are the kind of defect (cracklike, globular) and its size and orientation to the main stress directions; in the case of material property determination the parameters are mainly mechanical properties. Therefore, in NDE one has to solve inverse problems. The solution of inverse problems based on mathematical procedures such as integral equations is a strong developing discipline and most of the articles prepared for this special issue of the journal have the objective of discussing the latest state of the art in that field. However, practical NDE needs robust and quick solutions which are to be applied mainly online. Therefore, we present here inversion procedures based on multiple linear regression algorithms applied to inspection data. We describe the calibration procedure to fit the free parameters of the model functions and give examples of practical applications in industry.