Artificial Material May Revolutionize Electronics Apr 16, 2008
A parallel experimental study in Geneva, confirmed the improper ferroelectric character in this type of superlattice, and also provided evidence of an exceptionally useful new property: a dielectric constant (a value which describes the response of the material to an electric field) which is, at the same time, very high and independent of temperature, two characteristics that tend to be exclusive of one another but are here combined in the same material. But indeed the ideas generated by this... (Science Daily)
Solder made obsolete by growing copper pillars Feb 15, 2008
" The technique works through an electro-chemical deposition process in which a whole assembly of chips on a board is submerged in a solution of copper-sulfate. A reducing agent is then added to the solution, giving up electrons to the pillars as it oxidizes and performing electroless deposition. Free electrons strip off copper atoms from the copper sulfate molecules in the solution, elongating the pillars on the chip and the board. Once the pillars have grown together, forming a solid copper... (EETimes)
New polymer could improve semiconductor manufacturing, packaging Jan 29, 2008
Manufacturers today typically use benzocyclobutene and polyimide as polymers for redistribution layers, because of their low water absorption, thermal stability, low curing temperature, low thermal expansion, low dielectric constant, and low leakage current. Lu said PES offers significant advantages to these materials, particularly in the areas of cure temperature and water uptake. (EurekAlert!)
Shrinking chips use novel recipe Nov 12, 2007
Hafnium is a so-called high-K material, which refers to its dielectric constant, and has a greater ability to store electrical charge than silicon dioxide. The exact recipe for the new material has not been revealed but Intel says that it offers greater performance at such tiny scales. (BBC News -- Technology)
Designing New Piezoelectric Materials For Extreme Temperatures Oct 25, 2007
Over the last four decades perovskita-type ceramics (zirconium or lead titanate ceramics) have been mainly used as piezoelectric materials in acoustic applications, amongst other reasons because of their high elastic modularity, their high dielectric constant and their low dielectric and elastic losses. However, and although they have also been used successfully in many other applications, ceramic piezoelectric materials have some important drawbacks: limited deformation, fragility and a high... (Science Daily)
IBM's catches air, touts Top Ten list May 4, 2007
Reducing the dielectric constant of the insulation around each wire reduces the capacitance that arises when current flows through wires that are close to each other, capacitance that acts as a drag on the current flowing in the wires ... The amount of capacitance between two wires gets worse as they get closer together if the dielectric constant of the material between them isn't decreased to compensate. (Ars Technica)
Advances seen in high-k dielectrics Apr 29, 2007
The ability of a material to store charge--its permittivity--is measured by what is called the dielectric constant "k"--the ratio of a material's permittivity divided by the permittivity of a vacuum ... 9, but dielectric constants as high as 25 have been measured for materials such as hafnium oxide, zirconium oxide and barium titanate ... "If you have a thin film of crystalline barium titanate, its dielectric constant will be very, very high, but its electrical breakdown is too low for typical... (EETimes)
New Nanocomposite Processing Technique Creates More Powerful Capacitors Apr 27, 2007
"Our team has developed nanocomposites that have a remarkable combination of high dielectric constant and high dielectric breakdown strength," said Joseph W. Perry, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics ... Though large crystals of barium titanate could also provide a high dielectric constant, they generally do not provide adequate resistance to breakdown -- and their formation and growth can be complex and... (Science Daily)
AMD and IBM Detail Early Results Using Immersion and Ultra Low-K in 45nm Chips Dec 12, 2006
This advance is enabled through the development of an industry-leading ultra-low-K process integration that reduces the dielectric constant of the interconnect dielectric while maintaining the mechanical strength. The addition of ultra-low-K interconnect provides a 15 per cent reduction in wiring-related delay as compared to conventional low-K dielectrics. (Canada Newswire)
IBM's 'fab club' using immersion; no high-k Aug 30, 2006
The 45-nm process also supports a low-k film with a dielectric constant of 2 ... For 65-nm production, the low-k film has a dielectric constant of 2. (EETimes)
Rice develops first method to sort nanotubes by size Jun 24, 2006
"People have developed sorting methods based on both chemical and electrical properties, but ours is the first that's capable of sorting semiconducting nanotubes based upon their dielectric constant, which is determined by their diameter," said corresponding author, Howard Schmidt, executive director of Rice's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory (CNL). To sort nanotubes, the CNL team built a system that capitalizes on the fact that each type of nanotube has a unique dielectric constant a term... (EurekAlert!)
NEC and NEC Electronics Announce High-Speed and Low-Power Operation of 45nm CMOS LSIs with High Performance Jun 22, 2006
The parasitic capacitance of 140nm-pitched lines was reduced to the world's lowest at 85fF/mm, with the effective dielectric constant keff=2 ... Unwillingly, rigid silica layers were incorporated in the low-k film stacks, which had the unwanted effect of pushing the effective dielectric constant keff ... The parasitic capacitance of 140nm-pitched lines has been reduced to the world's lowest 85fF/mm, with an effective dielectric constant of keff=2. (JCN Network, Japan)
NEC Electronics and NEC Introduce High-k CMOS Technology Delivers Both Low Standby Power Consumption and High Operating Speeds; New 55nm Platform for a Wide Range of Applications Jun 22, 2006
The main features of the new technology are 1) threshold control in the high-k (high dielectric constant) material used as the transistor gate insulator, 2) high carrier mobility through process-induced stress, and 3) a fine-pitch design rule through leading-edge immersion lithography. Together, these advances enabled the development of a 55nm generation CMOS platform. (JCN Network, Japan)
RPI, UAlbany get state grants for tech-transfer projects May 17, 2006
$500,000 for Rensselaer's collaboration with of Malta to commercialize low dielectric constant materials for the manufacture of integrated circuits. Gov. George Pataki said the NYSTAR program is designed to help translate the research being conducted at the state's Centers of Excellence and other high-technology centers into economic development by the private sector. (Albany Business Review, NY)
