MEMS: New Materials, Markets And Packaging


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about future developments and challenges for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) with Gerold Schropfer, director of MEMS products and European operations in Lam Research's Computational Products group, and Michelle Bourke, senior director of strategic marketing for Lam's Customer Support Business Group. What follows are excerpts of that conversation.... » read more

Effective Post-TSV-DRIE Wet Clean Process For Through Silicon Via Applications


Deep Reactive Ion Etch (DRIE) processes used to form through silicon vias (TSVs) achieve high aspect ratios by depositing polymer on the vertical sidewalls of the features. This polymer material must be removed before other materials (including dielectric liner, Cu barrier, and Cu) are deposited in the TSVs. Clean processes adapted from Cu damascene integration flows use a combination of oxygen... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 3


Dancing With The Stars In telescopes, the ability to see distant stars and galaxies is driven by the light-gathering area and detectors in the system. In the last 50 years, the collecting area in large-scale telescopes has increased by only a factor of four, according to researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, the sensitivity of CCD detectors has increased... » read more