by John Iacoponi, IITC/MAM conference general co-chair

May 12, 2011 - The joint 2011 International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC)/Materials for Advanced Metallization Conference (MAM) conference continues in Dresden, Germany. Here's a sneak peek at day 2 and day 3 talks.

Day 2, Tuesday May 10. Technical sessions included reliability, BEOL memory technologies, 3D integration, and interconnect process integration. Interconnect reliability has been a cornerstone topic at IITC since its inception and continues to be a very hot topic. Electromigration, stress migration, and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) all remain top challenges, especially as dimensions continue to aggressively scale from node to node to enable chip scaling.

Continuing a trend started last year at IITC 2010, this year's conference has a number of papers on BEOL memory technologies ranging from materials to integration to reliability. Another cornerstone of IITC has been process integration. Papers presented on Day 2 covered yield, ultralow-k, and self-aligned via/double patterning integration topics.

In an interactive, workshop-like format, over 60 posters were exhibited, giving the opportunity for direct one-on-one discussion with the presenters.

Day 3, Wednesday May 11. Leveraging the historical strength of the MAM conference, IITC Day 3 started off with several papers on materials and process technology, then shifted gears with a session on interconnects in the power and automotive marketplace. Wednesday afternoon IITC looked to the future, with presentations discussing graphene nanoribbons and carbon nanotubes (CNT) point to interconnect technologies beyond Cu/low-k. Day 3 ended with a session on metal gate materials and processes.

Continuing the IITC tradition of supplier partnership, several suppliers held technical seminars in the evening. On Monday, ASM International hosted a reception and seminar entitled "Bridging the gap to porous low-k," focusing on process and integration challenges toward k=2.0 materials. On Tuesday evening, Metryx hosted a similar event on the topic "A users perspective of mass metrology."

In 2012 the IITC will return to the San Francisco Bay area, completing an experimental four-year cycle alternating between US/Asia/US/Europe locations. The IITC organizing committee is evaluating continuing this rotation and looking into possible locations in Asia for 2013.

The IITC/MAM conference wraps up with Day 4 on Thursday May 12. The full technical program can be found on the IITC website.

John Iacoponi is technology research manager at Globalfoundries, and general co-chair of the IITC/MAM conference. Other co-chairs: Ehrenfried Zschech (Fraunhofer Institute), Takeshi Furusawa (Renesas Electronics), and Stefan Schulz (TU Chemnitz).