Instructor: Dr. Badih El-Kareh

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Course Date/Location Request

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Refund Policy: If a course is canceled, refunds are limited to course registration fees. Registration within 21 days of the course is subject to $100 surcharge.

Course Overview

Semiconductor and integrated circuit developments are proceeding at an incredible pace. For example, today’s mixed-signal chips perform a wide range of applications unheard of a few years ago, including wireless applications, high speed communications, and signal processing. As technology advances and ICs become smaller, frequencies on mixed-signal devices continue to rise. The question looming in everyone’s mind is “How long can these advancements continue?”

CMOS, BiCMOS, and Bipolar Process Integration, a 2-day course, presents the physics behind mixed-signal integrated circuit operation and processing technologies. We emphasize current issues related to designing and manufacturing next-generation devices.

What Will I Learn By Taking This Class?

Click here to view a full, printable course outline. This skill-building series is divided into three segments:

1. Basic Device Operation. You'll learn the fundamentals of transistor operation and the major applications for CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) and BiCMOS (Bipolar CMOS) devices.
2. Fabrication Technologies. The course covers fundamental manufacturing technologies and typical CMOS, BiCMOS, and Bipolar process flows used to guide IC fabrication.
3. Current Issues in Process Integration. In addition to learning the three parameters that constrain device operation, you'll discover how new materials are influencing the fabrication process and potentially causing future manufacturing problems. You'll learn about the image of new materials, yield, scaling, and process integration. Additionally, the course surveys major reliability mechanisms affecting silicon ICs today.

Our instructors work hard to explain how semiconductor devices work without delving too heavily into the complex physics and mathematical expressions that normally accompany this discipline. The class focuses on practical application to the situations that you face daily, whether you are a manager, engineer, or technician working in the semiconductor field, using semiconductor components, or supplying tools to the semiconductor industry.

Course Objectives

1. The seminar will provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the semiconductor industry and its technical issues.
2. Participants will understand the basic concepts behind transistor operation and performance.
3. The seminar will identify the key issues related to the continued growth of the semiconductor industry.
4. The seminar offers a wide variety of sample problems that participants work to help them gain knowledge of the fundamentals of device operation and manufacturing.
5. Participants will be able to identify basic and advanced technology features on semiconductor devices. This includes features like hi and low-k dielectrics, silicon-germanium, emitter islands, copper, and strained silicon.
6. Participants will understand how reliability, power consumption, and device performance are interrelated.
7. Participants will be able to make decisions about how to construct and evaluate new CMOS, BiCMOS, and bipolar technologies.

Educational Materials

Silicon Devices and Process Integration

By Badih El-Kareh

Silicon Devices and Process Integration covers state-of-the-art silicon devices, their characteristics, and their interactions with process parameters. It serves as a comprehensive guide which addresses both the theoretical and practical aspects of modern silicon devices and the relationship between their electrical properties and processing conditions. The book is compiled from the author’s industrial and academic lecture notes and reflects years of experience in the development of silicon devices.

Features include:

• A review of silicon properties which provides a foundation for understanding the device properties discussion, including mobility-enhancement by straining silicon
• State-of-the-art technologies on high-K gate dielectrics, low-K dielectrics, Cu interconnects, and SiGe BiCMOS
• CMOS-only applications, such as subthreshold current and parasitic latch-up
• Advanced Enabling processes and process integration

This book is written for engineers and scientists in semiconductor research, development and manufacturing. The problems at the end of each chapter and numerous charts, figures, and tables also make it appropriate for use as a text in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in electrical engineering and materials science.

Instructional Strategy

Our courses are dynamic. We use a combination of instruction by lecture, problem solving, and question/answer sessions to give you the tools you need to excel in the semiconductor industry. From the very first moments of the seminar until the last sentence of the training, the driving instructional factor is application. The handbook offers hundreds of pages of reference material that you can apply during your daily activities.

Our instructors are internationally recognized experts. Our instructors have years of current and relevant experience in their fields. They're focused on answering your questions and teaching you what you need to know.

Instructor Profile

Dr. Badih El-Kareh, Independent Consultant

As a Process Development Manager at Texas Instruments, Dallas, Dr. El-Kareh developed advanced BiCMOS processes in Freising, Germany. Dr. El-Kareh also worked at IBM and has 35 years experience in semiconductor device design, process integration, and characterization. He has implemented CMOS and BiCMOS technologies and devices for memory, logic, and analog applications. He has written two books on VLSI silicon devices and modern semiconductor processing technologies. He has authored or co-authored 32 papers and holds 25 US patents. Dr. El-Kareh is a senior member of IEEE. He has 20 years experience in academic and industrial teaching.