Integrated-circuit protection

Jovalusky, J., Integrating Circuit-Protection Functions Reduces Power Source Costs, ECN, Jun. 2003. 

Ultraviolet-Curable Silicones for Integrated-Circuit Protection... 

Technology which couples fast ultraviolet (UV) cure response with silicone performance characteristics suitable for integrated circuit protection has been developed. One-part silicones which can be cured in several seconds to provide products of excellent purity, stress relief, thermal stability, and protection against harsh environments are the result. 

The new UV curable silicones afford an attractive alternative to standard heat activated materials for integrated circuit protection where high speed automated fabrication and assembly processes are desired. Additionally, the photosensitivity of these materials present other convenient processing opportunities. 

Multilayered structures play an important role in the production of, e.g., biomaterials, catalysts, corrosion protectors, detectors/diodes, gas and humidity sensors, integral circuits, optical parts, solar cells, and wear protection materials. One of the most sophisticated developments is a head-up-display (HUD) for cars, consisting of a polycarbonate substrate and a series of the layers Cr (25 nm), A1 (150 nm), SiO, (55 nm), TiO, (31 nm), and SiO, (8 nm). Such systems should be characterized by non-destructive analytical methods. 

Residual current operated circuit breakers, without integral overcurrent protection. General rules ... 

What are the technologies of the integrated circuits that are being used within the design of the system One cannot protect something, if one doesn t know how it breaks. 

Figure 7.3. The evolution of electronics a vacuum tube, a discrete transistor in its protective package, and a 150 nun (diameter) silicon wafer patterned w ith hundreds of integrated circuit chips. Each chip, about I enr in area, contains over one million transistors, 0..35 pm in size (courtesy M.L. Green, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies).

The present chapter deals with the CVD of metals and some metal alloys and intermetallics. The metals are listed alphabetically. The range of applications is extensive as many of these materials play an important part in the fabrication of integrated circuits and other semiconductor devices in optoelectronic and optical applications, in corrosion protection, and in the design of structural parts. These applications are reviewed in greater depth in Chs. 13 to 19. 

The significance of corrosion protection has risen sharply in recent years for a number of reasons (1) because of efforts to reduce the metal content of parts (e.g., by using thinner metallic support structures) (2) with the use of new types of equipment and processes involving expensive equipment operated under extreme conditions, such as nuclear reactors and jet and rocket engines and (3) in connection with the development of products having extremely thin metal films, such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits. 

John Lach, William H. Mangione-Smith, and Miodrag Potkonjak. FPGA Fingerprinting Techniques for Protecting Intellectual Property , 1998 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, Santa Clara, CA, pp. 299-302, May 1998. 213, 214,... 

There are two types of memory used in computers. The main memory is based on integrated circuit chips and all parts can be accessed with great rapidity and with equal ease. In mainframe computers this is known as the main store whilst in smaller computers, including microcomputers, it is called the random access memory (RAM). Some parts of RAM may be reserved for the storage of programs or data which are to be protected from change or accidental erasure. Such a reserved area of memory is called read only memory (ROM). ROM chips, sometimes called firmware, are often used in integrators and microcomputers dedicated to particular tasks. The... 

Thin films (qv) of vitreous silica have been used extensively in semiconductor technology. These serve as insulating layers between conductor stripes and a semiconductor surface in integrated circuits, and as a surface passivation material in planar diodes, transistors, and injection lasers. They are also used for diffusion masking, as etchant surfaces, and for encapsulation and protection of completed electronic devices. Thin films serve an important function in multilayer conductor insulation technology where a variety of conducting paths are deposited in overlay patterns and insulating layers are required for separation. 

Photo-resist technology is widely used for imaging processes in such applications in electronics. If it is wished to produce a metallic pattern of connections between many electronic components (resistors, capacitors, integrated circuits, etc.), this can be done by the selective etching of a thin copper plate deposited on an insulating base. The copper layer is protected by a resist which is a polymer, deposited in such a way that it prevents the attack of the metal by an etching solution which will solubilize only the unprotected, exposed copper (Figure 6.8). 

A variation of this technique can be used for the preparation of integrated circuits with a resolution of the order of the jum. In this case a silicon wafer is protected by the resist which must be deposited with an accurately controlled thickness. Exposure to light is done through a mask (with an optical reduction of the size of the image). 

A number of polymeric coatings, primarily polyimides, epoxies, and silicones, are used as adhesives and in other aspects of packaging, as well as for final encapsulation and protection of the integrated circuit. 

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