MICROELECTRONICS RESEARCH LABORATORY

MICROELECTRONICS RESEARCH LABORATORY

DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY, DUBLIN 9, IRELAND

Contents

Introduction

Equipment Base

Ongoing Research Areas & Partners

Recent Research Papers

Useful Links

A Few Recreational Links

Introduction

MRL is a Key Technology Laboratory within a new National Centre of Excellence called RINCE (pronounced 'rink-eh' with a hard 'c'). RINCE, the Research Institute for Network & Communications Engineering, is one of the Irish government's initiatives being funded under the Higher Education Authority's (HEA) Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions 1999-2001. RINCE is a national centre for excellence in information and communications technology. It is based in the School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University here in Ireland.

RINCE is currently offering exciting Postgraduate Research Opportunities in many different research areas. Please click on the RINCE link above for more information.

Director: Patrick J. McNally, BE, ScM, PhD, CPhys, MInstP, MIEI, MIEEE.

Established: 1993.

Current Human Resources: 1 University Lecturer, 3 PhD Students, 2 MEng Students, 4 BEng Students.

Key Outputs: Academic Publications & Papers; Industrial & academic collaboration in Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, U.S.A. and Finland; Ireland's only access to synchrotron X-ray topography characterisation. Student Training. Consultancy.

Further information from:

Dr. Patrick J. McNally

Director, Microelectronics Research Laboratory, School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, IRELAND.

email: mcnallyp@eeng.dcu.ie

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Equipment Base

Class 100 clean room facilities.

Karl Suss MJB300 mask aligner - sub micron photolithography.

Laurell photoresist spinner.

Plasma Technology plasma RIE etcher.

Scientific Systems Ltd. (Dublin 9, IRL) Plasma Impedance Monitor.

Metal deposition facilities: resistive thermal and e-beam.

Dielectric sputter etch facilities.

Refractory metal sputtering.

Graphite strip annealer.

Signetics probe station.

Curve tracers, spectrum analyzers, lock-in amplifiers etc.

ESCA and Auger Electron Spectroscopy facilities..

Sula Technologies Deep Level transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) system with Cold Stage.

Jobin-Yvon Modular Integrated Raman/Photoluminescence system (HeNe Laser with resolution down to 1 cm^-1).

Photoacoustic Spectroscopy system utilising the gas chamber cell concept for sub-bandgap non-radiative de-excitation spectroscopy.

Access to synchrotron x-ray topography characterisation facilities at HASYLAB, Germany.

X-ray topography image processing facilities, incl. Zeiss optical microscope, CCD image capture and Visilog-based image enhancement and processing.

Sun workstations, Javastations and personal computers.

Electronic device simulation software (MEDICI) - homojunction and heterojunction devices.

Simulation of device processing (using Tsuprem4 and QuickField) especially process-induced stresses and their impact.

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Ongoing Research Areas and Partners

Current Partnerships

(1) HASYLAB-DESY (Hamburger Synchrotronstrahlungslabor am Deutsches Elektronen- Synchrotron), Hamburg, Germany: Provides high intensity synchrotron X-radiation facilities allowing MRL to perform state-of-the-art and novel materials/device processing characterisation.

(2) Optoelectronics Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland: Collaboration on synchrotron x-ray topography (SXRT) analysis of materials/device processing (Prof. T. Tuomi)

(3) Kristallographisches Institut, University of Freiburg, Germany: Collaboration on a comparative analysis of advanced III-V (e.g GaAs, InP) earth- and space-grown materials, and implications for future device fabrication (Dr. A.N. Danilewsky).

(4) Plasma Ireland Ltd., Cork: Examination of failure mechanisms in packaged LEDs using x-ray topography, micro-Raman strain measurements, optical emission spectroscopy and I-V characterization.

(5) Intel Ireland Ltd., Leixlip, Ireland: Use of synchrotron x-ray topography and micro-Raman spectroscopy to monitor the stress-related impact of copper metallization process options for CMOS processes. Analysis of stress/defect production due to Pb-based flip-chip technologies.

(6) Physicalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig, Germany: Use of x-ray topographic techniques to verify the crystalline quality of Si single crystals used in the Avogadro Project, which aims to redifine the KILOGRAMME using perfect Si, in order to allow worldwide laboratory-based replication of this international standard (in collaboration with Helsinki University of Technology).

Ongoing Research