Interconnection challenges and the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors

For the past 40 years, the semiconductor industry has made extraordinary productivity improvements through the incremental development of the basic technology invented several decades ago. However, we now approach a decade of nonincremental technology changes, many of which are affecting the area of interconnection technology. The industry´s ability to ramp copper/low-k technologies and develop cost-effective flip-chip packaging, will be crucial to the continued productivity improvements and revenue growth for the industry. Following the introduction of copper/low-k, the industry also needs to be prepared to work on design and architecture solutions, since material improvements are less likely to be cost effective, at least in the near term