Minutes

We started our monthly meeting in 2006 with Leo Matthew as our invited speaker. Leo is the novel device expert from Freescale Semiconductor Inc. He gave an excellent talk on ITFET. He discussed challenges with vertical double gated devices, latest simulation results as well as applications for ITFET… To find out more, you can download the presentation slides in this website.

The October meeting was held in Sematech and Dr. Bob Steimle, the nano-crystal expert from Freescale Semiconductor Inc. was the guest speaker. He gave an interesting talk on challenges in nano-crystal research. He discussed challenges in the nano-crystal deposition process, how nanocrystal technology compares to floating gate technology and much more... To find out more, you can download the presentation slides.

Dr. Dorel Toma from Tokyo Electronics is the guest speaker for our September meeting. He gave an interesting talk titled: "ULK Integration Issues for 45 nm and Beyond". He discussed integration issues with ultra low-k films, ways to improve mechanical characteristics of ULK films and ways to limit damage in integration of ULK films. The presentations were well received and the slides can be downloaded on this website.

The July meeting was held in Sematech and Ken Davis, Chief Economist from Freescale Semiconductor Inc. was the guest speaker. He gave an interesting and informative talk on semiconductor market overview and semiconductor market forecast. He also discussed some of the factors that drive the semiconductor market. His talk drew a lot of questions from the audience. To find out more, you can download the slides in this website.

Prof. Alexander Demkov from Dept of Physics UT Austin is the invited speaker for June. He presented an interesting talk on "Atomic design of advanced gate stacks for CMOS technology". The abstract of his talk is as follows:
A theoretical approach using Density Functional Theory methods to finding a p-type gate metal for the high-k gate stack will be discussed. The Si-SiO2-HfO2-Mo stack will be considered as an example. The properties of metal-to-insulator junctions are often discussed in terms of the Fermi level pinning by the interface states. An alternative point of view is based on the picture of polarized chemical bonds at the metal-to-insulator interface. For the case of molybdenum on the (111) surface of the tetragonal polymorph of hafni, we trace the formation of the Schottky barrier from the Newens-Anderson chemisorption limit to a one nm thick layer of the (110) oriented metal. The role of the surface band of hafnia in the pinning of the Fermi level is discussed, including the analysis of relative roles of the evanescent and chemical interface states. We critically compare the predictions of the metal induced gaps states (MIGS) model with the results of direct density functional calculations. These theoretical results are then used in a de! vice level continuous simulation to infer parameters critical to the device performance.

Dr. Celik Butler is our May invited speaker. She presented her exciting work on noise and reliability in high-k dielectrics. She showed that the quality of the oxide underneath high-k films affect the noise. Furthermore, metal gate devices have lower noise than polysilicon gate devices. Nitrogen incorporation also helps lower noise in high-k films.

Prof. Yu from Univ. of California at San Diego is the guest speaker for our April meeting. He gave an interesting talk titled:"High Power Photodiode for Antenna Applications". Prior to his technical presentation he gave a presentation EDS mission statement and some of the benefits of being an EDS member. Both of his presentations are well received and the slides can be downloaded on this website.

Dr. Chadwin Young from International Sematech is the guest speaker for the March meeting. He gave an excellent talk on Characterization Techniques of High-k Dielectrics. His presentation drew a lot of questions from the audience. His presentation slides can be found in the website.

The February meeting was held in JJ Pickle Center and Bill Verzi from Agilent was the guest speaker. His lively and entertaining talk was on "Common Mistakes of Parametric Testing". He explained in detail the top ten mistakes on parametric testing which include: connecting SMUs up using sense line instead of force line, improper connection to ground units, using "Limited Auto' ranging instead of "Auto Ranging" and much more. The slides are available for download in this website.

The first monthly meeting was held on Jan 27th in J. J. Pickle Research Center. Ken Davis, Freescale Semiconductor chief economist, gave an exciting seminar on semiconductor market overview. He presented predictions and trends for 2005 and beyond for different aspects of the semiconductor industry. His presentations drew a lot of questions from the audience.

At the end of the seminar, a raffle was drawn and a lucky winner for a Best Buy gift certificate and IEEE mug was selected from the audience!

Meeting attendees: Bill Verzi, Diann Dow, Tommy Triyoso, Thuy Dao, Paul Aum, Dina Triyoso, Tongsheng Xiat, Stephen Dow.

We discussed possible speakers for 2005. They are:

1. Chad Young or Geroge Brown (Sematech) on characterization technique and testing
2. Peter Zdebel of ON Semiconductor on Analog Products
3. Sri Samavedam of NanoCoolers - depends on how much data he can present that is not proprietary.
4. Principal consultant(s) from Agilent. Meeting can be held at 183 and Oaknoll ( Agilent site in Austin). Topics: basics of testing
5. Nanotechnology - Professor from Dallas
6. Greg Yeric

We also discussed how often should the meeting be held, quarterly or monthly.

The first technical meeting of IEEE EDS Central Texas Chapter was held on Oct 14, 2004 in J. J. Pickle Research campus. Two excellent presentations were given on high-k dielectrics and metal gate electrodes. Dr. Hsing Huang Tseng from Freescale Semiconductor Inc talked about the impact of deuterium incorporation on threshold voltage stability improvement. Dr. Prashant Majhi from Sematech shared some challenges and opportunities for advanced gate electrodes. Both talks drew good and lively discussion from the audience.

Meeting attendees: Lee Chen, Terri Moore, John Rembetski, Andrew Lin, Dina Triyoso, Paul Aum, Thuy Dao.

At the planning meeting on July 17th, 2004, we met and formed the rest of the organization committee:

IEEE CTS EDC
Chair: Thuy Dao
Treasurer: Paul Aum
Secretary: Dina Triyoso
Recruitment & meeting coordinator: Andrew Lin
Industry liaison: open
University & Consortium liaison: open

Follow are the recommended topics of interested that we plan to invite speakers and schedule the meetings for:

Q4, 2004   Advanced transistor structures- I can invite someone from Freescale (Bich-Yen Nguyen ?) or TSMC or UT. If you have recommendation, please send to me.
Q1, 2005   High K Metal gate stack - I can invite Hsing Tseng from Freescale or Dr. Prashant Majhi of Sematech or someone from UT to give a talk.
Q2, 2005   Equipment & Process for high-K Metal Gate - some one from AMAT?
Q3, 2005   Immersion lithography - I can invite Bernie Roman from Freescale or other from your recommendation or suggestion.
Q4, 2005   Testing issues for advanced digital & mixed signals - someone from Agilent?

We can also add more topics / speakers at a later date.