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A typical workflow for advanced package failure analysis usually focuses around two key sequential steps: defect localization and defect characterization. Defect localization can be achieved using a number of complementary techniques, but electro optical terahertz pulse reflectometry (EOTPR) has emerged as a powerful solution. This paper shows how the EOTPR approach can be extended to provide solutions for the growing complexity of advanced packages. First, it demonstrates how localization of defects can be performed in traces without an external connection, through the use of an innovative cross-sectional probing with EOTPR. Then, the paper shows that EOTPR simulation can be used to extract the interface resistance, granting an alternative way of quantitative defect characterization using EOTPR without the destructive physical analysis. These novel approaches showed the great potential of EOTPR in failure analysis and reliability analysis of advanced packaging.

X-ray imaging for both Failure Analysis and In-line Inspection has been utilized widely in the semiconductor industry, especially for surface mount device applications. During the investigation of total ionizing dose (TID) induced degradation of logic ICs with bulk FinFET technology, we observed that the degradation is mainly in the form of an increase in I/O leakage and IDDQ. Using filters during radiation was shown to impact TID. Failure Analysis was performed to localize the excessive current in both I/O leakage and IDDQ.

X-Ray imaging is widely used in the semiconductor industry, for failure analysis and for in-line inspection of surface mount devices. Here, we investigate the TID-induced degradation of logic ICs, which happens after long-term exposure to X-Ray. The observed degradation is mainly in the form of an increase in the leakage of input/output pins and the IDDQ of their circuitry. Annealing at high temperature is shown to partially recover the leakage degradation caused by the radiation.

We demonstrate that plasmonic response can be tuned spectrally via the alloy composition of an epitaxial semimetallic film. Specifically, attenuated total reflectance studies show that the surface plasmon resonance of rare-earth monopnictide LaxLu1–xAs alloy films can be tuned across the mid-IR, while lattice-matching to technologically important substrates. The electrical properties are a strong function of the composition, which, in turn, manifests as tunability of the optical properties. The ability to produce tunable (semi)metals that can be epitaxially integrated with III–V emitters and absorbers is expected to enable a new generation of novel nanophotonic device architectures and functionality.

Integration of a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and monolayer graphene is a significant step toward realizing low-cost, low-power, heterogeneous nanoelectronic devices based on two-dimensional materials such as gas sensors capable of enabling future mobile sensor networks for the Internet of Things (IoT). But CMOS and post-CMOS process parameters such as temperature and material limits, and the low-power requirements of untethered sensors in general, pose considerable barriers to heterogeneous integration. We demonstrate the first monolithically integrated CMOS-monolayer graphene gas sensor, with a minimal number of post-CMOS processing steps, to realize a gas sensor platform that combines the superior gas sensitivity of monolayer graphene with the low power consumption and cost advantages of a silicon CMOS platform. Mature 0.18 µm CMOS technology provides the driving circuit for directly integrated graphene chemiresistive junctions in a radio frequency (RF) circuit platform. This work provides important advances in scalable and feasible RF gas sensors specifically, and toward monolithic heterogeneous graphene–CMOS integration generally. The combination of monolayer graphene with a silicon-based CMOS platform results in a monolithically integrated gas sensor. A team led by Deji Akinwande at the University of Texas at Austin developed a graphene-based gas sensing platform that leverages the remarkable gas sensitivity of graphene and the well-established advantages of silicon technology. Using a commercially available 0.18 μm CMOS radio-frequency (RF) circuit, the authors fabricated graphene chemi-resistive junctions atop the CMOS readout circuit, whereby the interaction between gas molecules and graphene can be read as an output frequency while minimizing the number of post-processing steps. The built-in RF functionalities enable a direct wireless connection with the transducer and offer reduced flicker noise, as opposed to direct-current sensors.

A convenient, one-pot three-component synthesis of new photochromic azo-imidazoles ( 1a - 1h ) from the corresponding azo dyes ( 2a - 2h) , benzil and ammonium acetate under microwave irradiation were described and their photochromic properties were investigated. The structures of the new azo-imidazoles were confirmed by UV–Vis, FT-IR and NMR spectroscopies and elemental analysis. The properties and photochromic structural behavior relationship (PSBR) of these compounds have been analyzed. All the compounds exhibit good photochromic behavior upon irradiation with alternative UV and visible light.

This paper tackles a common ground non-isolated bidirectional DC-DC converter for applications of micro-grids. The suggested converter consists of four main switches with their body diodes, three inductors, and four capacitors. Simple structure, vast voltage gain scope, low voltage tension in the switches and joint common ground among the input and the output are the merits of the suggested converter. Furthermore, the suggested converter provides high step-up/step-down voltage gain. Regarding the simplicity in this configuration, the control concept of the suggested converter is a straightforward conception. Doing so, this paper deals with steady-state analyses in both directions, voltage stress across the power switches, and a watchful survey in comparison between other bidirectional converters. Finally, the simulation results are concluded to validate the effectiveness of the analyses in the suggested converter.

We have achieved 140-nm channel length graphene thin-film transistors (TFTs) on flexible glass with a 95-GHz intrinsic cutoff frequency and greater than 30-GHz intrinsic power frequency after standard de-embedding. The flexible glass substrate offers subnanometer surface smoothness as well as high thermal conductivity, 1 W/ $\textrm {m}\,\cdot \, \textrm {K}$ , which can prevent thermomechanical failure, which is a limitation of plastic and rubber substrates. In addition, we developed a flexible 60-nm polyimide thin film as gate dielectric with low surface roughness less than 0.35 nm for optimal carrier transport and facilitate edge-injection contacts for low contact resistance. The maximum electron (hole) mobility is 4540 (1100) cm2/ $\textrm {V}\cdot \textrm {s}$ , and the extracted contact resistance in the electron (hole) branch is 1140 (720) $\Omega \cdot \mu \text{m}$ . The intrinsic cutoff frequency is 196% higher than our previous results on polymeric substrates. Importantly, the experimental saturation velocity of the graphene TFT is the highest for any flexible transistor on any material system reported so far.

Here we present a very fast, selective mechanical approach for transferring graphene with low levels of copper contamination from seed wafers on which it was grown to target wafers for very large scale integration (VLSI) electronics. We found that graphene/copper or copper/silicon oxide delamination paths could be selected by slow and faster separation rates, respectively. Thus graphene can be transferred to a target wafer, either exposed or protected by the seed copper layer, which can later be removed by etching. Delamination paths were identified by SEM and Raman spectroscopy. The sheet resistance of the graphene produced by the two approaches was slightly higher than graphene transferred by a PMMA wet-transfer process, indicating reduced impurity doping, and the variation in the sheet resistance values was much lower. Copper contamination levels, quantitatively established by TOF-SIMS, were several orders of magnitude lower than the values for PMMA assisted transfer. In addition, we demonstrated that top-gated transistor devices from our mechanical, delamination transferred graphene exhibited superior transistor behavior to PMMA-assisted wet transfer graphene. The adhesion energy, strength and range of the interactions were quantitatively determined by nonlinear fracture analyses, and suggest that the roughness of the interface between graphene and copper plays an important role with implications for improvements in manufacturing processes.

The largest applications of high-performance graphene will likely be realized when combined with ubiquitous Si very large scale integrated (VLSI) technology, affording a new portfolio of "back end of the line" devices including graphene radio frequency transistors, heat and transparent conductors, interconnects, mechanical actuators, sensors, and optical devices. To this end, we investigate the scalable growth of polycrystalline graphene through chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and its integration with Si VLSI technology. The large-area Raman mapping on CVD polycrystalline graphene on 150 and 300 mm wafers reveals95% monolayer uniformity with negligible defects. About 26,000 graphene field-effect transistors were realized, and statistical evaluation indicates a device yield of ∼ 74% is achieved, 20% higher than previous reports. About 18% of devices show mobility of3000 cm(2)/(V s), more than 3 times higher than prior results obtained over the same range from CVD polycrystalline graphene. The peak mobility observed here is ∼ 40% higher than the peak mobility values reported for single-crystalline graphene, a major advancement for polycrystalline graphene that can be readily manufactured. Intrinsic graphene features such as soft current saturation and three-region output characteristics at high field have also been observed on wafer-scale CVD graphene on which frequency doubler and amplifiers are demonstrated as well. Our growth and transport results on scalable CVD graphene have enabled 300 mm synthesis instrumentation that is now commercially available.

There is a growing interest in the design of novel flexible electronics for future internet of things (IoT) systems [1]. IoT requires design of low power RF electronics operating at GHz frequency range. Molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) is the prototypical transitional metal dichalcogenide (TMD) affording a large semiconducting bandgap (1.8eV), high saturation velocity, good mechanical strength, high mobility (> 50cm2/Vs), high on/off ratio (> 106), good current saturation and GHz RF performance [2]. In this work, we demonstrate wafer scale monolayer MoS 2 based flexible RF nanoelectronics that can be used for low power nanoelectronics and flexible IoT systems.

In this work, a tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) is integrated with a free spectral range matched interrogation (FSRMI) system for temperature and strain sensing applications. The experimental data show that the peak wavelengths of the core and cladding modes of the TFBG shift linearly to longer wavelength with the increase of temperature and strain. Since the FSRMI system allows simultaneous demodulation of multiple wavelengths, the sensing system can be extended by integrating a eta-channel FSRMI with eta TFBGs for multipoint temperature and strain sensing with high precision and fast detection rate.

In summary, we report NPI as a flexible dielectric for transistors based on 2D atomic sheets such as graphene and MoS 2 , which features high mechanical flexibility, stable electrical performances and low roughness. NPI offers the realistic prospects for highly flexible electronics beyond the typical 2 % limitation of high-κ or ceramic gate dielectrics

We have demonstrated the state-of-the-art on scalable graphene synthesis, device yield and electrical statistics with the highest performance wafer-scale devices showing electronic properties similar to exfoliated flakes. The mechanical delamination of graphene resulted in high material quality due to residue free pristine graphene surface, and holds promise for wafer-scale BEOL bonding integration of graphene with Si CMOS substrates.

A new method for fiber-Bragg-grating sensor interrogation and multiplexing is proposed and its operating features are investigated experimentally. This technique utilizes free-spectral-range-matched interrogation (FSRMI) employing a tunable scanning Fabry-Perot filter and a multichannel bandpass filter. An -channel FSRMI allows simultaneous scanning and thus improvement of detection speed by times compared to a nonfree-spectral-range-matched interrogation scheme. A 5-pm wavelength resolution has been obtained. This technique simultaneously scans the multiple transmission peaks and provides solutions to a wavelength-modulated distributed sensors and multisensor arrays with high sampling speed and wavelength accuracy.

We report the improvement of the electrical performance of field effect transistors (FETs) fabricated on monolayer chemical vapor deposited (CVD) MoS2, by applying an interacting fluoropolymer capping layer (Teflon-AF). The electrical characterizations of more than 60 FETs, after applying Teflon-AF cap, show significant improvement of the device properties and reduced device to device variation. The improvement includes: 50% reduction of the average gate hysteresis, 30% reduction of the subthreshold swing and about an order of magnitude increase of the current on-off ratio. These favorable changes in device performance are attributed to the reduced exposure of MoS2 channels to the adsorbates in the ambient which can be explained by the polar nature of Teflon-AF cap. A positive shift in the threshold voltage of all the measured FETs is observed, which translates to the more desirable enhancement mode transistor characteristics.

Design and fabrication of a 2×2 two-mode interference (TMI) coupler based on-chip polarization splitter is presented. By changing the angle between the access waveguides, one can tune the effective TMI length for the mode with less optical confinement (transverse magnetic, TM) to coincide with the target TMI length for a desired transmission of the mode with higher optical confinement (transverse electric, TE). The fabricated 0.94 μm long 2×2 TMI splits the input power into TM (bar) and TE (cross) outputs with splitting ratio over 15 dB over 50 nm bandwidth. Fabrication tolerance analysis shows that the device is tolerant to fabrication errors as large as 60 nm.

This paper reports a micromachined drug delivery device that is wirelessly operated using radiofrequency magnetic fields for implant applications. The controlled release from the drug reservoir of the device is achieved with the microvalves of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) thermoresponsive hydrogel that are actuated with a wireless resonant heater, which is activated only when the field frequency is tuned to the resonant frequency of the heater circuit. The device is constructed by bonding a 1-mm-thick polyimide component with the reservoir cavity to the heater circuit that uses a planar coil with the size of 5–10 mm fabricated on polyimide film, making all the outer surfaces to be polyimide. The release holes created in a reservoir wall are opened/closed by the hydrogel microvalves that are formed inside the reservoir by in-situ photolithography that uses the reservoir wall as a photomask, providing the hydrogel structures self-aligned to the release holes. The wireless heaters exhibit fast and strong response to the field frequency, with a temperature increase of up to 20°C for the heater that has the 34-MHz resonant frequency, achieving 38-% shrinkage of swelled hydrogel when the heater is excited at its resonance. An active frequency range of ~2 MHz is observed for the hydrogel actuation. Detailed characteristics in the fabrication and actuation of the hydrogel microvalves as well as experimental demonstrations of frequency-controlled temporal release are reported.

We report the improvement of the electrical characteristics of graphene field-effect transistors (FETs) by hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) treatment. Both electron and hole field-effect mobilities are increased by 1.5 × –2×, accompanied by effective residual carrier concentration reduction. Dirac point also moves closer to zero Volt. Time evolution of mobility data shows that mobility improvement saturates after a few hours of HMDS treatment. Temperature-dependent transport measurements show small mobility variation between 77 K and room temperature (295 K) before HMDS application. But mobility at 77 K is almost 2 times higher than mobility at 295 K after HMDS application, indicating reduced carrier scattering. Performance improvement is also observed for FETs made on hydrophobic substrate—an HMDS-graphene-HMDS sandwich structure. Raman spectroscopic analysis shows that G peak width is increased, G peak position is down shifted, and intensity ratio between 2D and G peaks is increased after HMDS application. We attribute the improvements in electronic transport mainly to enhanced screening and mitigation of adsorbed impurities from graphene surface upon HMDS treatment.

We investigate the temperature-dependent resistivity of single-crystalline films of LaxLu1-xAs over the 5–300 K range. The resistivity was separated into lattice, carrier and impurity scattering regions. The effect of impurity scattering is significant below 20 K, while carrier scattering dominates at 20–80 K and lattice scattering dominates above 80 K. All scattering regions show strong dependence on the La content of the films. While the resistivity of 600 nm LuAs films agree well with the reported bulk resistivity values, 3 nm films possessed significantly higher resistivity, suggesting that interfacial roughness significantly impacts the scattering of carriers at the nanoscale limit.

We demonstrate the growth of high‐quality, single crystal, rocksalt LaAs on III‐V substrates; employing thin well-behaved LuAs barriers layers at the III-V/LaAs interfaces to suppress nucleation of other LaAs phases, interfacial reactions between GaAs and LaAs, and polycrystalline LaAs growth. This method enables growth of single crystal epitaxial rocksalt LaAs with enhanced structural and electrical properties. Temperature-dependent resistivity and optical reflectivity measurements suggest that epitaxial LaAs is semimetallic, consistent with bandstructure calculations in literature. LaAs exhibits distinct electrical and optical properties, as compared with previously reported rare-earth arsenide materials, with a room-temperature resistivity of ∼459 μΩ-cm and an optical transmission window >50% between ∼3-5 μm.

We report the growth and characterization of nearly lattice-matched LuAs/GaAs heterostructures. Electrical conductivity, optical transmission, and reflectivity measurements of epitaxial LuAs films indicate that LuAs is semimetallic, with a room-temperature resistivity of 90 μΩ cm. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy confirms that LuAs nucleates as self-assembled nanoparticles, which can be overgrown with high-quality GaAs. The growth and material properties are very similar to those of the more established ErAs/GaAs system; however, we observe important differences in the magnitude and wavelength of the peak optical transparency, making LuAs superior for certain device applications, particularly for thick epitaxially embedded Ohmic contacts that are transparent in the near-IR telecommunications window around 1.3 μm.

We report measurements of the thermal and charge conductivities of two single crystals of PrOs4Sb12 and PrRu4Sb12 over the temperature range of 1.2–30 K at zero magnetic field. For PrRu4Sb12, we find behaviour consistent with a simple metal and recover the Wiedemann–Franz law in the low temperature limit above Tc. For PrOs4Sb12, a simple model is used to separate out the electronic conductivity which shows an unusual temperature dependence upon entering the superconducting state. For both systems, the temperature dependence of the Lorenz number is shown to be consistent with scattering from Pr3+ ions in the presence of the crystalline electric field.