Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.v.

Globalfoundries Inc.

Leibniz-Institut Fuer Festkoerper-Und Werkstoffforschung Dresden E.v.

Axo Dresden Gmbh

Leibniz-Institut Für Festkörper-Und Werkstoffforschung Dresden E.v.

Ehrenfried Zschech

Martin Gall

Hans-Juergen Engelmann

Eckhard Langer

Peter Huebler

Frank G Kuechenmeister

Dmytro Chumakov

Holm Geisler

Moritz Andreas Meyer

Gisela Schammler

Moritz-Andreas Meyer

Piotr Grabiec

Reiner Dietsch

Teodor Gotszalk

Mathias Böttcher

Andre Clausner

Sven Niese

Gotthart Seifert

Michael Hecker

Kong Boon Yeap

Helmut Hermann

Pawel Janus

Konstyantyn Zagorodniy

Daniel Gehre

Malgorzata Kopycinska-Mueller

Beate Volkmann

Christoph Sander

Frank Macher

André Clausner

The invention relates to a device for carrying out bending tests on panel-shaped or beam-shaped samples (), in which two rotary drives are arranged at a distance from one another and a flange () is fastened to each of the drive shafts of the rotary drives, said drive shafts being oriented parallel to one another. At least two bar-shaped bending elements () oriented parallel to the axis of rotation of the drive shafts and arranged at a distance from the axis of rotation and at a distance from one another are provided on each of the flanges (). A panel-shaped or beam-shaped sample () can be introduced between the two bar-shaped bending elements () on the two flanges (). In the event of rotation of the rotary drives in opposite directions of rotation, bending forces are exerted on the sample () and each of the two rotary drives can be controlled individually and connected to an electronic open-loop or closed-loop control unit.

Device for carrying out bending tests on panel-shaped or beam shaped samples

The invention relates to an arrangement and to a method for the synchronous determination of the shear modulus and of the Poisson's number on samples of elastically isotropic and anisotropic materials. In the arrangement, an indenter is movable in parallel with its longitudinal axis (A) in the direction of the surface of a sample such that a force action is exerted on the material by its tip. The force can be determined by a device for measuring this force and the indenter is additionally deflected in translation along at least one further axis. The longitudinal axis (A) of the indenter is aligned at an angle &#x2260;90&#xb0; with respect to the surface of the sample and the indenter carries out an upward movement and a downward movement. In this respect, a device is present for calculating the shear modulus G and the Poisson's number v from the contact stiffness k determined in this manner, from the acting normal force P, from the indentation modulus Mand from the shear modulus-related parameter Nof the sample while taking account of the respective angle &#x3b8;.

Arrangement and method for the synchronous determination of the shear modulus and of the Poisson's number on samples of elastically isotropic and anisotropic materials

The present invention relates to an illumination and imaging device for high-resolution X-ray microscopy with high photon energy, comprising an X-ray source () for emitting X-ray radiation and an area detector () for detecting the X-ray radiation. Moreover, the device comprises a monochromatizing and two-dimensionally focussing condenser-based optical system () arranged in the optical path of X-ray radiation with two reflective elements () being arranged side-by-side for focussing impinging X-ray radiation on an object to be imaged () and a diffractive X-ray lens () for imaging the object to be imaged () on the X-ray detector (). Typically, the illumination and imaging device is used for performing radiography, tomography and examination of a micro-electronic component or an iron-based material.

Illumination and imaging device for high-resolution X-ray microscopy with high photon energy

The invention relates to the fields of microelectronics and materials sciences and concerns an insulation layer material for integrated circuits in microelectronics, which can be used, for example, in integrated circuits as insulation material in semiconductor components. The object of the present invention is to disclose an insulation material for integrated circuits, which has dielectric constants of k&#x2266;2 with good mechanical properties at the same time. The object is attained with an insulation material for integrated circuits, containing at least MOFs and/or COFs.

Insulation material for integrated circuits and use of said integrated circuits

By forming an appropriate material layer, such as a metal-containing material, on a appropriate substrate and patterning the material layer to obtain a cantilever portion and a tip portion, a specifically designed nano-probe may be provided. In some illustrative aspects, additionally, a three-dimensional template structure may be provided prior to the deposition of the probe material, thereby enabling the definition of sophisticated tip portions on the basis of lithography, wherein, alternatively or additionally, other material removal processes with high spatial resolution, such as FIB techniques, may be used for defining nano-probes, which may be used for electric interaction, highly resolved temperature measurements and the like. Thus, sophisticated measurement techniques may be established for advanced thermal scanning, strain measurement techniques and the like, in which a thermal and/or electrical interaction with the surface under consideration is required. These techniques may be advantageously used for failure localization and local analysis during the fabrication of advanced integrated circuits.

Nanoprobe tip for advanced scanning probe microscopy comprising a layered probe material patterned by lithography and/or FIB techniques

An alloy forming dopant material is deposited prior to the formation of a copper line, for instance by incorporating the dopant material into the barrier layer, which is then driven into the vicinity of a weak interface by means of a heat treatment. As indicated by corresponding investigations, the dopant material is substantially transported to the weak interface through grain boundary regions rather than through the bulk copper material (copper grains), thereby enabling moderately high alloy concentrations in the vicinity of the interface while maintaining a relatively low overall concentration within the grains. The alloy at the interface reduces electromigration along the interface.

Technique for forming embedded metal lines having increased resistance against stress-induced material transport

By digitizing the UFM signal without using a lock-in amplifier, substantially all of the information initially contained in the UFM output signal may be maintained and may then be used for further data processing. Consequently, any type of model or evaluation algorithm may be used without being restricted to a very narrow bandwidth, as is the case in lock-in based techniques. The digitizing is performed on a real-time basis, wherein a complete UFM curve is digitized and stored for each scan position. In this way, quantitative meaningful values for specific surface-related characteristics with a nanometer resolution may be obtained.

Method and apparatus for determining surface characteristics by using SPM techniques with acoustic excitation and real-time digitizing

A semiconductor structure comprises a stress sensitive element. A property of the stress sensitive element is representative of a stress in the semiconductor structure. Additionally, the semiconductor structure may comprise an electrical element. The stress sensitive element and the electrical element comprise portions of a common layer structure. Analyzers may be adapted to determine a property of the stress sensitive element being representative of a stress in the semiconductor structure and a property of the electrical element. The property of the stress sensitive element may be determined and the manufacturing process may be modified based on the determined property of the stress sensitive element. The property of the electrical element may be related to the property of the stress sensitive element in order to investigate an influence of stress on the electrical element.

Semiconductor structure comprising a stress sensitive element and method of measuring a stress in a semiconductor structure

During the formation of a metallization layer of a semiconductor device, a cap layer is formed above a metal line and subsequently an implantation process is performed so as to modify the metal in the vicinity of the interface between the cap layer and the metal line. Consequently, an improved behavior in view of electromigration of the metal line may be obtained, thereby increasing device reliability.

Metal line having an increased resistance to electromigration along an interface of a dielectric barrier layer by implanting material into the metal line

By preparing fully-embedded interconnect structure samples for a cross-section analysis by means of electron microscopy or x-ray microscopy, degradation mechanisms may be efficiently monitored. Moreover, displaying some of the measurement results as a quick motion representation enables the detection of subtle changes of characteristics of an interconnect structure in a highly efficient manner.

Technique for monitoring the state of metal lines in microstructures

A semiconductor device comprises a material layer adapted to efficiently stop alpha particles that are substantially generated within a solder bump of a flip chip device. The materials used for stopping the alpha particles are compatible with standard back-end processing and do not degrade adhesion of the solder bump to the remaining substrate. Moreover, a low electrical resistance is maintained and heat dissipation may be improved.

Soft error resistant semiconductor device

A method is provided for preparing a sample for cross-section analysis by a transmission electron microscope. Semiconductor samples containing recessed portions or unfilled structures are filled with a filling material so as to produce a planar top surface onto which a metal layer can be deposited for thinning the sample to a thickness of less than 100 nm by an FIB technique.

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Moritzburg, Germany

Ehrenfried Zschech