Mar 19, 2003
Dallas � Advancements in research into thin dielectric breakdowns and exploration in the use of high-k gate dielectrics and low-k materials as interconnects are the focus of next week�s International Reliability Physics Symposium.
The annual conference on IC reliability and performance will be held March 30 to April 4, in Dallas.
Among the topics:
� Low-k materials for interconnects, and how the introduction of low-k dielectrics may change some fundamental rules for electromigration in copper interconnect systems.
� Soft breakdown in thin dielectrics and circuit performance, including why breakdown occurs and what stresses cause dielectric reliability issues.
� Thin gate (less than 12 angstroms) dielectric layer reliability issues.
� High-k gate dielectrics.
� The latest findings on circuit/transistor reliability; copper reliability; ESD and packaging; failure analysis; product reliability; and MEMS reliability.
IRPS is sponsored by the IEEE Reliability Society and IEEE Electron Devices Society.
