229-A1.1

• Activity: IC Fabrication
• Instructions: In this activity, you are tasked to
  • Watch a short video about integrated circuit (IC) fabrication.
  • Read a paper on CMOS scaling.
  • Write a short (1-page) report.
• Should you have any questions, clarifications, or issues, please contact your instructor as soon as possible.

• At the end of this activity, the student should be able to:

1. Enumerate and explain the key steps and technologies involved in fabricating integrated circuits.
2. Explain why there is a concern about the future of CMOS technology.

Video

• Video: Silicon Run I (1996) Youtube link

Paper Reading

• T. Skotnicki, J. A. Hutchby, Tsu-Jae King, H. -. P. Wong and F. Boeuf, The end of CMOS scaling: toward the introduction of new materials and structural changes to improve MOSFET performance, in IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 16-26, Jan.-Feb. 2005, doi: 10.1109/MCD.2005.1388765.
  • You can access this paper for free via the UPEEEI VPN service. If you cannot access the IEEE link via the UPEEEI VPN, you can also access this via this link.
• C.-H. Jan et al., RF CMOS technology scaling in High-k/metal gate era for RF SoC (system-on-chip) applications, 2010 International Electron Devices Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 2010, pp. 27.2.1-27.2.4, doi: 10.1109/IEDM.2010.5703431.
  • You can access this paper for free via the UPEEEI VPN service. If you cannot access the IEEE link via the UPEEEI VPN, you can also access this via this link.

Report Guide

Based on the video you watched, the papers (not limited to the two papers above) you have read,and any other resource that is available to you, write a short (1-page) report on what you think would be the key challenges we would face as IC designers in general, and RFIC designers in particular, and why.

Submission

Submit your reports via email, before starting Module 2.