Integrated circuit technology, rapid

An important new application for MOCVD is the deposition of pure metal films for semiconductor integrated circuit applications. Important metals deposited by MOCVD include Al, Cu, CuAl alloys, and W films using precursors listed in Table I. It is expected that this application area for MOCVD will expand rapidly in the next few years as the demand increases for high-density metal interconnects for Si integrated circuit technology. High-purity Al metal films have also been grown by MOCVD. 

The discovery of semiconductor integrated circuits by Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley, Kilby, and Noyce was a revolution in the micro and nano worlds. The concept of miniaturization and integration has been exploited in many areas with remarkable achievements in computers and information technology. The utility of microchips was also realized by analytical scientists and has been used in chromatography and capillary electrophoresis. In 1990, Manz et al. [1] used microfluidic devices in separation science. Later on, other scientists also worked with these units for separation and identification of various compounds. A proliferation of papers has been reported since 1990 and today a good number of publications are available in the literature on NLC and NCE. We have searched the literature through analytical and chemical abstracts, Medline, Science Finder, and peer reviewed journals and found a few thousand papers on chips but we selected only those papers related to NLC and NCE techniques. Attempts have been made to record the development of microfluidic devices in separation science. The number of papers published in the last decade (1998-2007) is shown in Fig. 10.1, which clearly indicates rapid development in microfluidic devices as analytical tools. About 30 papers were published in 1998 that number has risen to 400 in... 

Prior to 1950, these industries were based on vacuum tube technology, and most electronic gear was assembled on metal chassis with mechanical attachment, soldering, and hand wiring. All the components of pretransistor electronic products—vacuum tubes, capacitors, inductors, and resistors— were manufactured by mechanical processes. A rapid evolution occurred after the invention of the transistor and the monolithic integrated circuit. Today s electronic equipment is filled with integrated circuits, interconnection boards, and other devices that are all manufactured by chemical processes. The medium used for the transmission of information and data over dis-... 

Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) plays an important role in today s microelectronics industry. With its ability to achieve global planarization, its universality (material insensitivity), its applicability to multimaterial surfaces, and its relative cost-effectiveness, CMP is the ideal planarizing medium for the interlayered dielectrics and metal films used in silicon integrated circuit fabrication. But although the past decade has seen unprecedented research and development into CMP, there has been no single-source reference to this rapidly emerging technology - until now. 

In the microelectronics community, the acronym CMP has been interpreted as either chemical-mechanical polishing or chemical-mechanical planarization. Polishing means the removal of materials, whereas planarization means flattening. It is the authors preference to interpret CMP as chemical-mechanical planarization. Because technology and integrated circuit (IC) shrinking advance rapidly, planarization has come to be at the heart of the CMP function. 

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