Product design: The computer: Now it's a component! Large-scale integrated circuits spawned the CPU on a chip, but it raises questions of who designs what

IEEE Spectrum ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-82
Author(s):  
Gerald Lapidus
Author(s):  
Simon Thomas

Trends in the technology development of very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) have been in the direction of higher density of components with smaller dimensions. The scaling down of device dimensions has been not only laterally but also in depth. Such efforts in miniaturization bring with them new developments in materials and processing. Successful implementation of these efforts is, to a large extent, dependent on the proper understanding of the material properties, process technologies and reliability issues, through adequate analytical studies. The analytical instrumentation technology has, fortunately, kept pace with the basic requirements of devices with lateral dimensions in the micron/ submicron range and depths of the order of nonometers. Often, newer analytical techniques have emerged or the more conventional techniques have been adapted to meet the more stringent requirements. As such, a variety of analytical techniques are available today to aid an analyst in the efforts of VLSI process evaluation. Generally such analytical efforts are divided into the characterization of materials, evaluation of processing steps and the analysis of failures.


Author(s):  
V. C. Kannan ◽  
A. K. Singh ◽  
R. B. Irwin ◽  
S. Chittipeddi ◽  
F. D. Nkansah ◽  
...  

Titanium nitride (TiN) films have historically been used as diffusion barrier between silicon and aluminum, as an adhesion layer for tungsten deposition and as an interconnect material etc. Recently, the role of TiN films as contact barriers in very large scale silicon integrated circuits (VLSI) has been extensively studied. TiN films have resistivities on the order of 20μ Ω-cm which is much lower than that of titanium (nearly 66μ Ω-cm). Deposited TiN films show resistivities which vary from 20 to 100μ Ω-cm depending upon the type of deposition and process conditions. TiNx is known to have a NaCl type crystal structure for a wide range of compositions. Change in color from metallic luster to gold reflects the stabilization of the TiNx (FCC) phase over the close packed Ti(N) hexagonal phase. It was found that TiN (1:1) ideal composition with the FCC (NaCl-type) structure gives the best electrical property.


Author(s):  
C.K. Wu ◽  
P. Chang ◽  
N. Godinho

Recently, the use of refractory metal silicides as low resistivity, high temperature and high oxidation resistance gate materials in large scale integrated circuits (LSI) has become an important approach in advanced MOS process development (1). This research is a systematic study on the structure and properties of molybdenum silicide thin film and its applicability to high performance LSI fabrication.


Author(s):  
H.W. Ho ◽  
J.C.H. Phang ◽  
A. Altes ◽  
L.J. Balk

Abstract In this paper, scanning thermal conductivity microscopy is used to characterize interconnect defects due to electromigration. Similar features are observed both in the temperature and thermal conductivity micrographs. The key advantage of the thermal conductivity mode is that specimen bias is not required. This is an important advantage for the characterization of defects in large scale integrated circuits. The thermal conductivity micrographs of extrusion, exposed and subsurface voids are presented and compared with the corresponding topography and temperature micrographs.


Author(s):  
Bethany Juhnke ◽  
Colleen Pokorny ◽  
Linsey Griffin ◽  
Susan Sokolowski

Despite the complexity of the human hand, most large-scale anthropometric data for the human hand includes minimal measurements. Anthropometric studies are expensive and time-consuming to conduct, and more efficient methods are needed to capture hand data and build large-scale civilian databases to impact product design and human factors analyses. A first of its kind large-scale 3D hand anthropometric database was the result of this study with 398 unique datasets. This database was created at minimal cost and time to researchers to improve accessibility to data and impact the design of products for hands.


Author(s):  
Katharine McCoy

This presentation, reflecting a politics undergraduate thesis, will explore the design process behind the ballots that voters use in democratic elections around the world. Ballots are an inherently political objects, and in many cases, the most direct line of communication a citizen has to the government of their country. As such, the design of the ballot affects the legitimacy of higher level electoral and democratic institutions. This project argues that by co-opting the language of product design, a universal ballot design process would make more efficient ballots across the globe.   Product design starts with a brainstorming stage that explores at the user, the goal of the object, and the context of its use to create an effective design. By applying these observations to the process of designing a ballot, each electoral commission can produce a more effective ballot. Currently there is no standardization for ballot design other than ensuring that electoral commissions tried to make it “friendly.” By examining cases of bad ballot design, it is possible to see what element of the design process was missed or misused to create a process that corrects for these mistakes. This project examines poorly designed ballots in Florida, Scotland, and Colombia to explore the large-scale effects these small design choices make, and how to fix them. 


1995 ◽  
Vol 396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Qin ◽  
James D. Bernstein ◽  
Chung Chan

AbstractHydrogen etching effects in plasma ion implantation (PII) doping processes alter device structure and implant dopant profile and reduce the retained implant dose. This has particular relevance to the shallow junction devices of ultra large scale integrated circuits (ULSI). Hydrogen etching of semiconductor materials including Si, poly-Si, SiO2, Al, and photoresist films have been investigated. The effects of varying different PII process parameters are presented. The experimental data show that the spontaneous etching by hydrogen radicals enhanced by ion bombardment is responsible for the etching phenomena. A computer simulation is used to predict the as-implanted impurity profile and the retained implant dose for a shallow junction doping when the etching effect is considered.


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