Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The growing complexity and continued emphasis on multi-functionality and speed in today's integrated circuits (IC) has led to exponentially increased transistor counts and shrinking device geometries. Consequently, power dissipation is rapidly increasing, leading to higher heat fluxes, higher temperatures and larger temperature gradients. Critically, power dissipation levels in high-performance digital and radio-frequency (RF) ICs are approaching the cooling limit. Such a ""thermal crisis"" imposes significant challenges on IC performance, reliability, cost and portability. Hence, the design of high performance ICs needs to shift from electric-centric to electro-thermal design processes where the thermal aspects are considered at an early stage of the design to ensure the anticipated performance and reliability. The requested thermal imaging system will enable electro-thermal research on high performance digital and RF ICs across different IC design stages: from semiconductor technology, circuit design and validation, to failure analysis. The proposed thermoreflectance-based (TR) imaging system, which is currently unavailable in any academic or private institution in Canada, offers unique capabilities for high spatial and time resolutions with accurate temperature measurement. This is essential for developing relevant electro-thermal models of semiconductor devices, thermal-aware IC design techniques, thermal validation methods, and thermal-related failure analysis techniques which are critical to the development of reliable, high performance digital and RF ICs using sub-micron semiconductor technologies. The requested equipment also provides an effective method for IC inspection and trouble shooting.The success of the planned research, which relies on the availability of the requested equipment, will put Canada in a globally competitive position in the strategic area of next generation high-speed computer and RF communication platforms. Canadian semiconductor, IC design and wireless communication industries will greatly benefit from both the research outcomes and the highly qualified personnel trained on the equipment.