tag: BEOL

Analysis Of BEOL Metal Schemes By Process Modeling
By Daebin Yim - 16 Nov, 2023 - Comments: 0

The semiconductor industry has been diligently searching for alternative metal line materials to replace the conventional copper dual damascene scheme, because as interconnect dimensions shrink, the barrier accounts for an increasing fraction of the total line volume. The barrier layer's dimensions cannot be scaled down as quickly as the metal line width (figure 1). Popular barrier materials su... » read more

3D In-Memory Compute Making Progress
By Katherine Derbyshire - 17 Aug, 2023 - Comments: 0

Indium compounds are showing great promise for 3D in-memory compute and RF integration, but more work is needed. Researchers continue to make headway into 3D device integration particularly with indium tin oxide (ITO), which is widely used in display manufacturing. Recent work indicates that different compounds of indium oxide doped with tin, gallium, or zinc combinations may boost transisto... » read more

Demonstrating The Capabilities Of Virtual Wafer Process Modeling And Virtual Metrology
By Technical Paper Link - 27 Jul, 2023 - Comments: 0

A technical paper titled “Review of virtual wafer process modeling and metrology for advanced technology development” was published by researchers at Coventor Inc., Lam Research. Abstract: "Semiconductor logic and memory technology development continues to push the limits of process complexity and cost, especially as the industry migrates to the 5 nm node and beyond. Optimization of the p... » read more

Etch Processes Push Toward Higher Selectivity, Cost Control
By Laura Peters - 18 May, 2023 - Comments: 0

Plasma etching is perhaps the most essential process in semiconductor manufacturing, and possibly the most complex of all fab operations next to photolithography. Nearly half of all fab steps rely on a plasma, an energetic ionized gas, to do their work. Despite ever-shrinking transistor and memory cells, engineers continue to deliver reliable etch processes. “To sustainably create chips... » read more

New Low-Temp Growth & Fabrication Technology Allowing Integration of 2D Materials Directly Onto A Silicon Circuit (MIT)
By Technical Paper Link - 05 May, 2023 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "Low-thermal-budget synthesis of monolayer molybdenum disulfide for silicon back-end-of-line integration on a 200 mm platform" was published by researchers at MIT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Ericsson Research. According to this MIT news article: "Growing 2D materials directly onto a silicon CMOS wafer has posed a major challenge because the process u... » read more

How Does Line Edge Roughness (LER) Affect Semiconductor Performance At Advanced Nodes?
By Yu De Chen - 26 Sep, 2022 - Comments: 0

BEOL metal line RC delay has become a dominant factor that limits chip performance at advanced nodes [1]. Smaller metal line pitches require a narrower line CD and line to line spacing, which introduces higher metal line resistance and line to line capacitance. This is demonstrated in figure 1, which displays a simulation of line resistance vs. line CD across different BEOL metals. Even without... » read more

Detailed RF Characterization of Ultra-Thin Indium Oxide Transistors
By Technical Paper Link - 13 Sep, 2022 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "Record RF Performance of Ultra-thin Indium Oxide Transistors with Buried-gate Structure" was published by researchers at Purdue University and won the 2022 Device Research Conference Best Student Paper Award (DRC 2022 held in June). According to this Purdue University news release, "In this work, the radio frequency (RF) performance of indium oxide transistors w... » read more

New Materials Open Door To New Devices
By Katherine Derbyshire - 21 Jul, 2022 - Comments: 0

Integrating 2D materials into conventional semiconductor manufacturing processes may be one of the more radical changes in the chip industry’s history. While there is pain and suffering associated with the introduction of any new materials in semiconductor manufacturing, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) support a variety of new device concepts, including BEOL transistors and single-... » read more

New Method For BEOL Overlay And Process Margin Characterization
By PDF Solutions - 07 Jun, 2022 - Comments: 0

This paper presents a new method, design for inspection (DFI) to characterize overlay. Using design-assisted voltage contrast measurement, the method enables in-line test and monitoring of process induced OVL and CD variation of backend-of line (BEOL) features with litho-etch-lithoetch (LELE) patterning. While only some of the features of multi-color patterning scheme are chosen to be aligned d... » read more

There Is Plenty Of Room At The Top: Imagining Miniaturized Electro-Mechanical Switches In Low-Power Computing Applications
By Gerold Schröpfer - 19 May, 2022 - Comments: 0

The first computers were built using electro-mechanical components, unlike today’s modern electronic systems. Alan Turing’s cryptanalysis multiplier and Konrad Zuse’s Z2 were invented and built in the first half of the 20th century, and were among the first computers ever constructed. Electro-mechanical switches and relays performed logic operations in these machines. Even after computers... » read more

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