High-Density Solid-State Memory Devices and Technologies

This Special Issue aims to examine high-density solid-state memory devices and technologies from various standpoints in an attempt to foster their continuous success in the future. Considering that broadening of the range of applications will likely offer different types of solid-state memories their chance in the spotlight, the Special Issue is not focused on a specific storage solution but rather embraces all the most relevant solid-state memory devices and technologies currently on stage. Even the subjects dealt with in this Special Issue are widespread, ranging from process and design issues/innovations to the experimental and theoretical analysis of the operation and from the performance and reliability of memory devices and arrays to the exploitation of solid-state memories to pursue new computing paradigms

Reliability Analysis of Electrotechnical Devices

This is a book on the practical approaches of reliability to electrotechnical devices and systems. It includes the electromagnetic effect, radiation effect, environmental effect, and the impact of the manufacturing process on electronic materials, devices, and boards

Towards an on-chip power supply: Integration of micro energy harvesting and storage techniques for wireless sensor networks

The lifetime of a power supply in a sensor node of a wireless sensor network is the decisive factor in the longevity of the system. Traditional Li-ion batteries cannot fulfill the demands of sensor networks that require a long operational duration. Thus, we require a solution that produces its own electricity from its surrounding and stores it for future utility. Moreover, as the sensor node architecture is developed on complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology (CMOS), the manufacture of the power supply must be compatible with it. In this thesis, we shall describe the components of an on-chip lifetime power supply that can harvest the vibrational mechanical energy through piezoelectric microcantilevers and store it in a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based microsupercapacitor, and that is fabricated through CMOS compatible techniques. Our piezoelectric microcantilevers confirm the feasibility of fabricating micro electro- mechanical-systems (MEMS) size two-degree-of-freedom systems which can solve the major issue of small bandwidth of piezoelectric micro-energy harvesters. These devices use a cut-out trapezoidal cantilever beam to enhance the stress on the cantilever’s free end while reducing the gap remarkably between its first two eigenfrequencies in 400 - 500 Hz and 1 - 2 kHz range. The energy from the M-shaped harvesters will be stored in rGO based microsupercapacitors. These microsupercapacitors are manufactured through a fully CMOS compatible, reproducible, and reliable micromachining processes. Furthermore, we have also demonstrated an improvement in their electrochemical performance and yield of fabrication through surface roughening from iron nanoparticles. We have also examined the possibility of integrating these devices into a power management unit to fully realize a lifetime power supply for wireless sensor networks

Piin läpivientien luotettavuus ja elinikä termisessä rasituksessa

Through-silicon via (TSV) is one of the key technologies for three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs). TSVs enable vertical electrical connections between components which greatly reduces interconnection lengths. Regardless of all the promise the technique has shown, there are still major obstacles surrounding reliability and the cost of fabrication of the TSV structure. The first part of the thesis is a literature survey that focuses on different failure mechanisms of TSVs. In addition, different fabrication and design choices of TSVs are presented with the focus being on their effect on reliability. The experimental part of the thesis presents reliability and lifetime assessment of tapered partially copper-filled blind TSVs under thermal cycling. The reliability test was carried out with nine samples. Six of them had 420 vias and three of them had 1400 vias in a daisy chain structure. Finite element method (FEM) was used to predict the critical failure locations of the TSV structure. Lifetime was predicted by Weibull analysis. The cross-sections of the test samples were prepared by molding, mechanical grinding and polishing and analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Electrical measurements showed almost constant resistance increase in the samples before failures were noticed. The first failed sample was noticed after 200 cycles and the last at 4000 cycles. Lifetime of TSVs under thermal cycling was proven to be acceptable with used failure criterion. According to Weibull analysis, about 10 % of the samples with 420 vias will break after 1000 cycles. Sample preparation for imaging was deemed sufficient although the grinding caused artifacts. The simulation results were compared with SEM micrographs. The images showed that the failures were located at the maximum stress areas, identified with FEM simulations, at the bottom of the via. From the SEM images, it was deduced that the defects initiated from the fabrication process and propagated due to maximum localized stress.Piin läpivienti -rakenteet ovat keskeisessä osassa kolmiulotteisten integroitujen piirien kehityksessä. Piin läpiviennit mahdollistavat komponenttien vertikaalin yhdistämisen toisiinsa, mikä lyhentää huomattavasti niiden välistä etäisyyttä. Kaikista hyvistä puolista huolimatta tekniikalla on vielä haasteita edessään. Niistä suurimmat liittyvät rakenteen luotettavuuteen ja valmistuskustannuksiin. Diplomityön kirjallisessa osuudessa keskitytään piin läpivientien erilaisiin vauriomekanismeihin. Sen lisäksi tutkitaan valmistus- ja suunnitteluratkaisujen vaikutusta läpivientien luotettavuuteen. Kokeellisen osan tarkoituksena on osittain kuparitäytettyjen kaventuvien piin läpivientien luotettavuuden ja eliniän määrittäminen termisessä syklaustestissä. Luotettavuustestaus suoritettiin yhdeksällä näytteellä, joista kuudessa oli 420 läpivientiä ja kolmessa 1400 läpivientiä ketjurakenteessa. Elementtimallintamisen avulla määritettiin kriittiset vauriokohdat läpivientirakenteessa ja elinikä määritettiin Weibull-analyysillä. Näytteiden poikkileikkauksien valmistamiseen käytettiin muovaamista, mekaanista hiomista ja kiillotusta ja analysointi suoritettiin pyyhkäisyelektronimikroskoopilla. Näytteiden resistanssi nousi tasaisesti ennen rikkoutumisten havaitsemista. Ensimmäinen rikkoutuminen huomattiin 200 syklin jälkeen ja viimeinen 4000 syklin kohdalla. Näytteiden luotettavuus osoittautui hyväksi käytetyillä kriteereillä. Weibull-analyysin mukaan 10 % 420 läpiviennin näytteistä rikkoutuu 1000 syklin jälkeen. Karkea arvio voidaan tehdä, että satunnainen läpivienti rikkoutuu 0,024 % todennäköisyydellä 1000 syklin jälkeen. Pyyhkäisyelektronimikroskoopin kuvien perusteella havaittiin, että näytteet rikkoutuivat maksimaalisen rasituksen alueella läpivientien alaosassa. Kuvien perusteella päädyttiin johtopäätökseen, että näytteiden rikkoutumisen aiheuttivat virheet, jotka ovat peräisin valmistusprosessista ja jotka etenivät rakenteessa termisen rasituksen vaikutuksesta

Through Silicon Via Field-Effect Transistor with Hafnia-based Ferroelectrics and the Doping of Silicon by Gallium Implantation Utilizing a Focused Ion Beam System

3-dimensional integration has become a standard to further increase the transistor density and to enhance the integrated functionality in microchips. Integrated circuits are stacked on top of each other and copper-filled through-silicon VIAs (TSVs) are the industry-accepted choice for their vertical electrical connection. The aim of this work is to functionalize the TSVs by implementing vertical field-effect transistors inside the via holes. The front and back sides of 200 ... 300 µm thin silicon wafers were doped to create the source/drain regions of n- and p-FETs. The TSVFETs showed very stable saturation currents and on/off current ratios of about 10^6 (n-TSVFET) and 10^3 (p-TSVFET) for a gate voltage magnitude of 4V. The use of hafnium zirconium oxide on a thin SiO_2 interface layer as gate dielectric material in a p-TSVFET, enabled the implementation of a charge trapping memory inside the TSVs, showing a memory window of about 1V. This allows the non-volatile storage of the transistor on/off state. In addition, the demonstration of the use of gallium as the source/drain dopant in planar p-FET test structures (ion implanted from a focused ion beam tool) paves the way for maskless doping and for a process flow with a low thermal budget. It was shown, that ion implanted gallium can be activated and annealed at relatively low temperatures of 500 °C ... 700 °C.:Abstract / Kurzzusammenfassung Danksagung Index I List of Figures III List of Tables X List of Symbols XI List of Abbreviations XV 1 Introduction 1 2 Fundamentals 5 2.1 Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) 5 2.1.1 Historical Development - Technological Advancements 7 2.1.2 Field-Effect Transistors in Semiconductor Memories 10 2.2 3D Integration and the Use of TSVs (Through Silicon VIAs) 16 2.3 Doping of Silicon 19 2.3.1 Doping by Thermal Diffusion 20 2.3.2 Doping by Ion Implantation 22 3 Electrical Characterization 24 3.1 Resistivity Measurements 24 3.1.1 Resistance Determination by Four-Point Probes Measurement 24 3.1.2 Contact Resistivity 27 3.1.3 Doping Concentration 32 3.2 C-V Measurements 35 3.2.1 Fundamentals of MIS C-V Measurements 35 3.2.2 Interpretation of C-V Measurements 37 3.3 Transistor Measurements 41 3.3.1 Output Characteristics (I_D-V_D) 41 3.3.2 Transfer Characteristics (I_D-V_G) 42 4 TSV Transistor 45 4.1 Idea and Motivation 45 4.2 Design and Layout of the TSV Transistor 47 4.2.1 Design of the TSV Transistor Structures 47 4.2.2 Test Structures for Planar FETs 48 5 Variations in the Integration Scheme of the TSV Transistor 51 5.1 Doping by Diffusion from Thin Films 51 5.1.1 Determination of Doping Profiles 52 5.1.2 n- and p- TSVFETs Doped Manufactures by the Use of the Diffusion Technique 59 5.2 Ferroelectric Hafnium-Zirconium-Oxide (HZO) in the Gate Stack 81 5.2.1 Planar ferroelectric p-MOSFETs Doped by Thermal Diffusion 82 5.2.2 p-TSVFETs with Hafnium-Zirconium-Oxide Metal Gate 90 5.3 Doping by Ion Implantation of Gallium with a Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Tool 96 5.3.1 Ga doped Si Diodes 97 5.3.2 Planar p-MOSFETs Doped by Ga Implantation 108 5.3.3 Proposal for a parallel integration of Cu TSVs and p-TSVFETs 117 6 Summary and Outlook 120 Bibliography XVIII A Appendix XXXVI A.1 Resistivity and Dopant Density XXXVI A.2 Mask set for the TSVFET XXXVII A.3 Mask Design of the Planar Test Structures XXXVIII Curriculum Vitae XXXIX List of Scientific Publications XL

Modeling the SAC microstructure evolution under thermal, thermomechanical and electrical constraints

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On-chip electrochemical capacitors and piezoelectric energy harvesters for self-powering sensor nodes

On-chip sensing and communications in the Internet of things platform have benefited from the miniaturization of faster and low power complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) microelectronics. Micro-electromechanical systems technology (MEMS) and development of novel nanomaterials have further improved the performance of sensors and transducers while also demonstrating reduction in size and power consumption. Integration of such technologies can enable miniaturized nodes to be deployed to construct wireless sensor networks for autonomous data acquisition. Their longevity, however, is determined by the lifetime of the power supply. Traditional batteries cannot fully fulfill the demands of sensor nodes that require long operational duration. Thus, we require solutions that produce their own electricity from the surroundings and store them for future utility. Furthermore, manufacturing of such a power supply must be compatible with CMOS and MEMS technology. In this thesis, we will describe on-chip electrochemical capacitors and piezoelectric energy harvesters as components of such a self-powered sensor node. Our piezoelectric microcantilevers confirm the feasibility of fabricating micro electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) size two-degree-of-freedom systems which can address the major issue of small bandwidth of piezoelectric micro-energy harvesters. These devices use a cut-out trapezoidal cantilever beam, limited by its footprint area i.e. a 1 cm$^2$ silicon die, to enhance the stress on the cantilever\u27s free end while reducing the gap remarkably between its first two eigenfrequencies in the 400 - 500 Hz and in the 1 - 2 kHz range. The energy from the M-shaped harvesters could be stored in rGO based on-chip electrochemical capacitors. The electrochemical capacitors are manufactured through CMOS compatible, reproducible, and reliable micromachining processes such as chemical vapor deposition of carbon nanofibers (CNF) and spin coating of graphene oxide based (GO) solutions. The impact of electrode geometry and electrode thickness is studied for CNF based electrodes. Furthermore, we have also demonstrated an improvement in their electrochemical performance and yield of spin coated electrochemical capacitors through surface roughening from iron and chromium nanoparticles. The CVD grown CNF and spin coated rGO based devices are evaluated for their respective trade-offs. Finally, to improve the energy density and demonstrate the versatility of the spin coating process, we manufactured electrochemical capacitors from various GO based composites with functional groups heptadecan-9-amine and octadecanamine. The materials were used as a stack to demonstrate high energy density for spin coated electrochemical capacitors. We have also examined the possibility of integrating these devices into a power management unit to fully realize a self-powering on-chip power supply through survey of package fabrication, choice of electrolyte, and device assembly

A Construction Kit for Efficient Low Power Neural Network Accelerator Designs

Implementing embedded neural network processing at the edge requires efficient hardware acceleration that couples high computational performance with low power consumption. Driven by the rapid evolution of network architectures and their algorithmic features, accelerator designs are constantly updated and improved. To evaluate and compare hardware design choices, designers can refer to a myriad of accelerator implementations in the literature. Surveys provide an overview of these works but are often limited to system-level and benchmark-specific performance metrics, making it difficult to quantitatively compare the individual effect of each utilized optimization technique. This complicates the evaluation of optimizations for new accelerator designs, slowing-down the research progress. This work provides a survey of neural network accelerator optimization approaches that have been used in recent works and reports their individual effects on edge processing performance. It presents the list of optimizations and their quantitative effects as a construction kit, allowing to assess the design choices for each building block separately. Reported optimizations range from up to 10'000x memory savings to 33x energy reductions, providing chip designers an overview of design choices for implementing efficient low power neural network accelerators