Advanced materials for interconnections of the future-need and strategy

Summary form only given. Semiconductor electronics and driven by the continued miniaturization of devices and circuits leading to enhanced performance and lower cost per bit. Minimum feature sizes of /spl les/0.07 /spl mu/m in the year 2007-2010 time frame are predicted with devices operating in gigahertz range. This trend has placed stringent demands on metal-interconnection schemes, which if not met will stymie performance of the circuits. This talk will review the needs, the cause, and possible materials solutions to meet the challenges. As it appears, convential materials, even the new materials for electronics interconnections, may not meet these challenges. New strategies will be discussed including certain paradigm shifts in our thinking of using high performance devices/circuits.