News from Integrated Structures Committee

Impact of Mechanics on Reliability of Interconnect Structures

2006-05-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

Modeling Place: Impact of Mechanics on Reliability of Interconnect Structures in Microelectronics

Reliability Challenges in Roadmap: Opportunities for Mechanics

2006-04-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

Starting from 1998, the microelectronics industry has coordinated an international effort in producing the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) as the worldwide consensus on the main trends of technology spanning across 15 years into the future. The participation of experts from Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and USA ensures that the ITRS is a valid source of guidance for the integrated circuit (IC) industry and the worldwide market. Full revisions of the ITRS were produced in 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005, with updates in even-numbered years (2000, 2002, 2004). The latest revision, ITRS 2005, consists of an executive summary (101 pages) and 15 Working Group Reports on specific areas (each from 25 to 76 pages).

Among many grand challenges listed in the Roadmap, reliability, both electrical and mechanical, is identified as a key challenge for future technologies in areas ranging from frond-end processes to interconnect and to packaging. Modeling and Simulation, as a crosscut topic, emphasizes more predictive physical models and more efficient simulations to achieve design-for-reliability (DFR). To highlight the principal reliability challenges and to identify the research needs for reliability physics and reliability engineering, an accompanying document, Critical Reliability Challenges for the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, was published in 2003 by the Reliability Technical Advisory Board (RTAB) of SEMATECH (an industry consortium). As stated in the document, “the development of semiconductor technology in the next 7 years will bring a broad set of reliability challenges at a pace that has not been seen in the last 30 years.” Consequently, “a failure mechanism-driven approach must be employed, identifying the potential failures and evaluating their kinetics and impact based on the specific application conditions and requirements of each market segment.”

What can we read from the Roadmap?

We, as applied mechanicians, are well trained dealing with stress concentration, fracture, delamination, and many other deformation and defect mechanisms. These constitute a major portion of the mechanical reliability issues in the Roadmap. Stress and defect play important roles in determining electrical reliability as well. It is noted in the Roadmap that “Meeting reliability specification is a critical customer requirement and failure to meet reliability requirements can be carastrophic.” This in turn requires an in-depth knowledge of the physics of relevant failure modes and powerful engineering capabilities for design-for-reliability, building-in-reliability, and reliability qualification tests. Introduction of new materials and processes, highly complex integrated structures, and continuously shrinking feature sizes bring out the paramount needs for new discoveries and major breakthroughs in reliability physics and reliability engineering. On the other hand, the Roadmap notes insufficient R&D resources in the industry, and promotes cooperation and the most efficient use of existing resources. Together, great opportunities are open for applied mechanicians, most in academia. Several successful stories have been told with mutual benefits to the industry and the academia. The technical committee on Integrated Structures of Applied Mechanics Division is to forge more interactions across the traditional boundary between academia and industry. A time has arrived that the impact of mechanics can shape the future of the technology roadmap.

Here is a short and incomplete list of reliability challenges from the 2005 Roadmap. For more details, read the Roadmap!

· Timely assurance of the reliability of process integration with new materials and structures, including high-k gate dielectric, metal gate electrodes, ultra-thin body (UTB) fully depleted (FD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) transistors, and multi-gate structures.

· Achieving necessary reliability of interconnects, including copper/low-k, porous low-k, and beyond (e.g., nanowires, nanotubes, optical interconnects).

· Chip-package interaction and its impact on interconnect reliability; co-design of interconnects and packaging.

· Impact of increasing wafer size, lead-free solder joints, 3D packaging, and organic substrates/devices on thermomechanical reliability of assembly and packaging.

· Design and test for reliability

Flexible Electronics

2006-03-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

AMR: Review articles on Flexible Electronics

2006 Gordon Research Conference

2006-03-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

AMN: Registration for the 2006 Gordon Research Conference is now open

Technology Inspiration: SOI and Strained SOI

2006-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Technology Inspiration: SOI and Strained SOI

Apparently, mechanics is playing an important role in this technology, from smart cut to wafer bonding and to strain engineering. While electrical engineers are pushing hard to the frontier, the mechanics community could be contributing much more.

Minisymposium on Multiscale Studies of Thin Films and Small Structures, July 16-22, 2006, Los Angeles, California

2006-01-26T21:37:00.000-08:00

Computational Mechanics, or more generally, Computational Science, plays an important role in research and practice of integrated structures. This symposium, which inevitably has a focus on computation, also emphasizes integration of experiments and modeling. As part of the 7th World Congress on Computational Mechanics, this is a great opportunity for researchers in the Integrated Structures community to meet with computational experts from worldwide.

To submit your abstract to this symposium, please go to this website.

Deadline for abstract submission: March 15, 2006
Deadline for early registration: February 15, 2006

Views from Industries: Mechanics in Medical Implant Industry

2006-01-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

Views from Industries: Mechanics in Medical Implant Industry

Applied Mechanics News: Applied Mechanics in the Age of Web 2.0

2006-01-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

Applied Mechanics News: Applied Mechanics in the Age of Web 2.0

Integrated Structures featured in 2006 Gordon Conference

2006-01-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

Ting Tsui of Texas Instrument and Jun He of Intel will give two invited talks on "Mechanics of Advanced Interconnect Structures" at the first session of the 2006 Gordon Research Conference of "Thin Film & Small Scale Mechanical Behavior", to be held at Colby College, Waterville, ME, on July 30 - August 4, 2006. The full program of the conference can be found at http://www.grc.org/programs/2006/thinfilm.htm, which also includes sessions on Small-Scale Biomechanical Behavior, Plasticity and Stresses in Confined Geometries, Interaction between Soft and Hard Materials, and New Vistas of Small-Scale Mechanical Behavior.

Symposium on Mechanics and Materials of Integrated Structures in Advanced Technologies

2006-01-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

To be held at the 2006 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exhibition
November 5-10, 2006, Chicago, Illinois.

Abstract Deadline: March 6, 2006

Co-organized by Applied Mechanics Division, Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division, and Materials Division, this symposium will provide a forum for the discussions of the latest advances in the cross-disciplinary field of integrated structures, including advanced interconnects for integrated circuits, microelectromechanical systems, and biomedical devices. The symposium will address fundamental issues in mechanics and materials as well as practical issues for advanced technologies.

Topics of interest include, but not limited to:

Reliability of interconnect systems and low-k dielectrics
Stability of interconnect structures during processing and packaging
Strain engineering for Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) technology
Mechanics of macroelectronics (flexible display, thin-film solar cells, etc.)
Multi-field interactions in MEMS/NEMS and biomedical devices
Nanomaterials and nanostructures for thermal management
Novel mechanical testing methods for integrated small structures
Stress generation during manufacturing of integrated structures
Stress-induced structural evolution and self assembly at micro/nano-scales

Authors are invited to submit their abstracts online at
http://www.asmeconferences.org/Congress06/.

Symposium Organizers:

Aman Haque (Penn State Univ, mah37@psu.edu)
Jun He (Intel Corp., jun.he@intel.com)
Rui Huang (Univ of Texas-Austin, ruihuang@mail.utexas.edu)
Zhengfang Qian (Motorola, AZQ001@motorola.com)
Jianmin Qu (Georgia Tech, jianmin.qu@me.gatech.edu)

AMD Creates a New Technical Committee on Integrated Structures

2006-01-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

The Executive Committee of the Applied Mechanics Division has recently created a Technical Committee on Integrated Structures.

The Field
Devices in advanced technologies often have complex architectures, hybrid materials, and small features. Examples include integrated circuits and thermal barrier coatings. The mechanical behavior of such integrated structures often affects their fabrication and durability. By the very nature of integrated structures, the field is cross-disciplinary, involving many materials (metals, ceramics, polymers, semiconductors, etc.), and many modes of response (fracture, deformation, instability, and mass transport). The field is extremely active, both in terms of industrial applications and academic research.

The People
Many people with advanced degrees in applied mechanics and mechanical behavior of materials are now finding jobs in the microelectronic industry and biomedical device industry. Many of them have yet found a home society. While they interact with researchers in technical societies traditionally identified with these industries, they also interact with researchers in applied mechanics. The new Technical Committee will create a home for this group of people, and a link between applied mechanics and new, exciting applications. It will also possibly provide a way for the AMD to interact with some of the Industrial Tracks.

The Organization of the Technical Committee
To forge the link between academia and industries, the committee will have co-chairs. The initial co-chairs are
• Dr. Jun He (jun.he@intel.com), of Intel Corporation. He has worked over ten years in the industry, and is an innovative researcher in the field of thermomechanical reliability. He has a strong track-record of interacting with people in universities.
• Dr. Rui Huang (ruihuang@mail.utexas.edu), of the University of Texas, Austin. He is an energetic assistant professor in applied mechanics. He has been interacting with people in industries and government labs.