castle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., in 1974 and 1976, respectively, ... at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. He has been actively ...
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 16, NO. 2, MAY 2003
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Guest Editorial ICMTS 2002
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S TECHNOLOGY advances the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors identifies many of the challenges that lie ahead. The International Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures (ICMTS) provides a forum for the test structure community to meet and discuss these important challenges and report on the most recent development in the field. To this end, ICMTS focuses on the design, fabrication and characterization of test structures, which enable process and material evaluation, reliability and process failure analysis, and process control to be performed. In addition, device and circuit modeling, sensors, a detailed understanding of novel device operation and the associated measurement techniques and data analysis are addressed. ICMTS is one of the few international IEEE conferences that move between Europe, Japan, and the USA in a three-year cycle. In 2002 University College, Cork provided the setting for the 16th conference. Forty four papers were presented with authors from fifteen countries. This special issue is a representative selection of papers from the meeting and gives an indication of the broad spectrum of work presented. Papers in this special section address a number of important topics such as the matching associated with diffused resistors and ladder networks, and the characterization of inductors for RF applications. The creation and measurement of fine line structures is presenting the industry with significant challenges at present and two papers report on test structures for CD reference standards and mask metrology. Other contributions include the efficient evaluation of interconnect
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSM.2003.811898
through multiplexed measurements and papers dealing with the characterization of transmission line pulse measurements, field threshold voltage, radiation effects with bipolar transistors, hot carrier photoemission, focused ion beam calibration and capacitance extraction. Modeling related papers comprise of extraction methodologies for base and emitter resistances in bipolar devices and coupling coefficients in EEPROMS. For those with further interest in microelectronic test structures, the ICMTS conference proceedings contains the complete set of papers presented at Cork and is available from the IEEE. We would all like to thank the authors for their efforts in the preparation of the manuscripts and keeping to the deadlines that were set by the editorial requirements. We are also very grateful to the reviewers who both refereed the manuscripts in a timely manner and provided helpful and valuable feedback to the authors. Finally, we would like to thank Prof. D. Boning and S. Blake for their support during the review process.
ANTHONY J. WALTON, Guest Editor University of Edinburgh Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC) Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. ALAN MATHEWSON, Guest Editor National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) Cork, Ireland KEVIN G. McCARTHY, Guest Editor University College Cork Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering Cork, Ireland
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING, VOL. 16, NO. 2, MAY 2003
Anthony J. Walton (M’88) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., in 1974 and 1976, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Manchester Polytechnic (CNAA), Manchester, U.K. He is Professor of Microelectronic Manufacturing in the School of Engineering and Electronics at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. He has been actively involved with the semiconductor industry in a number of areas associated with silicon processing, IC technology and microsystems. This includes microelectronic test structures, yield improvement, design for manufacturability (DFM) and technology computer aided design (TCAD). His present interests also include the applications of micro and nanotechnology to biotechnology, genomic nanoprocessors, organometallic materials for semiconductor applications, sensors, and interconnect technology. He leads the technology research activities in the Institute for Micro and Nano Systems and was instrumental in setting up the Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC), Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. This is a purpose built facility for R&D and company incubation consisting of approximately 350 m of class 10 cleanrooms. He has published over 150 papers and has been the conference chairman for both the European Solid-State Devices Research Conference (ESSDERC) and the IEEE International Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures (ICMTS). Dr. Walton is an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING and a member of the IEEE.
Alan Mathewson (M’96-SM’97) received the B.Sc. degree from the University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., in 1978, and the Ph.D. degree in CMOS compatible APD Arrays from University College Cork (UCC), Cork, Ireland. He worked for Plessey Research, Caswell, U.K., and Racal Research Limited, Reading, U.K., until 1982 when he joined the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC), Cork, Ireland. He is now an Assistant Director of the Irish National Microelectronics Research Centre, where he is responsible for work on the development of novel technology applications and advanced process technology modules. Currently, he is technically responsible for the Transducers research group within NMRC. This involves technical management of a broad spectrum Si-based technology activities, including mixed signal circuit design, novel Si device architecture and MEMS design, Si technology research, technology characterization, reliability and process qualification as well as participating in nano/biotechnology development and has had responsibility for lecturing at UCC on solid state/semiconductor device physics at postgraduate and undergraduate level. He has contributed to more than two hundred publications in peer reviewed specialty journal and conference proceedings. Dr. Mathewson is a member of SPIE.
Kevin G. McCarthy (M’97) received the B.E., M.Eng.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from University College Cork (UCC), Cork, Ireland, in 1982, 1986, and 1992, respectively. He joined the academic staff of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UCC, in October 2000, where his primary research interests are in communications and microelectronic devices for communications, especially RF and mixed-signal devices and circuits. From 1993 to 2000, he was a senior research scientist at the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC), Cork, Ireland, where he was involved in the simulation of advanced MOSFET and bipolar devices for digital and analogue applications including yield and reliability analysis. Before joining the NMRC, he worked with Analog Devices, Limerick, Ireland, in product engineering and CAD engineering roles.
