Chemical mechanical planarization, or chemical mechanical polishing as it is simultaneously referred to, has emerged as one of the critical processes in semiconductor manufacturing and in the production of other related products and devices, MEMS for example. Since its introduction some 15+ years ago CMP, as it is commonly called, has moved steadily into new and challenging areas of semiconductor fabrication. Demands on it for consistent, efficient and cost-effective processing have been steady. This has continued in the face of steadily decreasing feature sizes, impressive increases in wafer size and a continuing array of new materials used in devices today. There are a number of excellent existing references and monographs on CMP in circulation and we defer to them for detailed background information. They are cited in the text. Our focus here is on the important area of process mod els which have not kept pace with the tremendous expansion of applications of CMP. Preston's equation is a valuable start but represents none of the subtleties of the process. Specifically, we refer to the development of models with sufficient detail to allow the evaluation and tradeoff of process inputs and parameters to assess impact on quality or quantity of production. We call that an "integrated model" and, more specifically, we include the important role of the mechanical elements of the process."

This book gives a comprehensive introduction to the design challenges of MPSoC platforms, focusing on early design space exploration. It defines an iterative methodology to increase the abstraction level so that evaluation of design decisions can be performed earlier in the design process. These techniques enable exploration on the system level before undertaking time- and cost-intensive development.

This book introduces advanced thyristor-based shunt hybrid active power filters (HAPFs) for power quality improvement in power grids, which are characterized by a low dc-link operating voltage and a wide compensation range. This means they can overcome the high dc-link voltage requirement of conventional active power filters and the narrow compensation range problem of LC-coupling hybrid active power filters. Consisting of 10 chapters, the book discusses the principle, design, control and hardware implementation of thyristor-based hybrid active power filters. It covers 1) V-I characteristics, cost analysis, power loss and reliability studies of different power filters; 2) mitigation of the harmonic injection technique for thyristor-controlled parts; 3) nonlinear pulse width modulation (PWM) control; 4) parameter design methods; 5) minimum inverter capacity design; 6) adaptive dc-link voltage control; 7) unbalanced control strategy; 8) selective compensation techniques; and 9) the hardware prototype design of thyristor-based HAPFs, verified by simulation and experimental results. It enables readers to gain an understanding of the basic power electronics techniques applied in power systems as well as the advanced techniques for controlling, implementing and designing advanced thyristor-based HAPFs.

Variability is one of the most challenging obstacles for IC design in the nanometer regime. In nanometer technologies, SRAM show an increased sensitivity to process variations due to low-voltage operation requirements, which are aggravated by the strong demand for lower power consumption and cost, while achieving higher performance and density. With the drastic increase in memory densities, lower supply voltages, and higher variations, statistical simulation methodologies become imperative to estimate memory yield and optimize performance and power. This book is an invaluable reference on robust SRAM circuits and statistical design methodologies for researchers and practicing engineers in the field of memory design. It combines state of the art circuit techniques and statistical methodologies to optimize SRAM performance and yield in nanometer technologies. Provides comprehensive review of state-of-the-art, variation-tolerant SRAM circuit techniques; Discusses Impact of device related process variations and how they affect circuit and system performance, from a design point of view; Helps designers optimize memory yield, with practical statistical design methodologies and yield estimation techniques.

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic change in the role played by design automation for electronic systems. Ten years ago, integrated circuit (IC) designers were content to use the computer for circuit, logic, and limited amounts of high-level simulation, as well as for capturing the digitized mask layouts used for IC manufacture. The tools were only aids to design-the designer could always find a way to implement the chip or board manually if the tools failed or if they did not give acceptable results. Today, however, design technology plays an indispensable role in the design ofelectronic systems and is critical to achieving time-to-market, cost, and performance targets. In less than ten years, designers have come to rely on automatic or semi automatic CAD systems for the physical design ofcomplex ICs containing over a million transistors. In the past three years, practical logic synthesis systems that take into account both cost and performance have become a commercial reality and many designers have already relinquished control ofthe logic netlist level of design to automatic computer aids. To date, only in certain well-defined areas, especially digital signal process ing and telecommunications. have higher-level design methods and tools found significant success. However, the forces of time-to-market and growing system complexity will demand the broad-based adoption of high-level, automated methods and tools over the next few years."

As embedded systems become more complex, designers face a number of challenges at different levels: they need to boost performance, while keeping energy consumption as low as possible, they need to reuse existent software code, and at the same time they need to take advantage of the extra logic available in the chip, represented by multiple processors working together. This book describes several strategies to achieve such different and interrelated goals, by the use of adaptability. Coverage includes reconfigurable systems, dynamic optimization techniques such as binary translation and trace reuse, new memory architectures including homogeneous and heterogeneous multiprocessor systems, communication issues and NOCs, fault tolerance against fabrication defects and soft errors, and finally, how one can combine several of these techniques together to achieve higher levels of performance and adaptability. The discussion also includes how to employ specialized software to improve this new adaptive system, and how this new kind of software must be designed and programmed.

Dynamic power management is a design methodology aiming at controlling performance and power levels of digital circuits and systems, with the goal of extending the autonomous operation time of battery-powered systems, providing graceful performance degradation when supply energy is limited, and adapting power dissipation to satisfy environmental constraints. Dynamic Power Management: Design Techniques and CAD Tools addresses design techniques and computer-aided design solutions for power management. Different approaches are presented and organized in an order related to their applicability to control-units, macro-blocks, digital circuits and electronic systems, respectively. All approaches are based on the principle of exploiting idleness of circuits, systems, or portions thereof. They involve both the detection of idleness conditions and the freezing of power-consuming activities in the idle components. The book also describes some approaches to system-level power management, including Microsoft's OnNow architecture and the Advanced Configuration and Power Management' standard proposed by Intel, Microsoft and Toshiba. These approaches migrate power management to the software layer running on hardware platforms, thus providing a flexible and self-configurable solution to adapting the power/performance tradeoff to the needs of mobile (and fixed) computing and communication. Dynamic Power Management: Design Techniques and CAD Tools is of interest to researchers and developers of computer-aided design tools for integrated circuits and systems, as well as to system designers.

This book describes several methods and systems solving one of the highlighted problems within computer aided design, namely architectural and logic synthesis. The book emphasises the most recent technologies in high level synthesis, concentrating on applicative studies and practical constraints or criteria during synthesis. Logic and Architecture Synthesis concentrates on the practical problems involving automatic synthesis of designs. It is essential reading for researchers and CAD Managers working in this area.

As integrated circuit (IC) feature sizes scaled below a quarter of a micron, thereby defining the deep submicron (DSM) era, there began a gradual shift in the impact on performance due to the metal interconnections among the active circuit components. Once viewed as merely parasitics in terms of their relevance to the overall circuit behavior, the interconnect can now have a dominant impact on the IC area and performance. Beginning in the late 1980's there was significant research toward better modeling and characterization of the resistance, capacitance and ultimately the inductance of on-chip interconnect. IC Interconnect Analysis covers the state-of-the-art methods for modeling and analyzing IC interconnect based on the past fifteen years of research. This is done at a level suitable for most practitioners who work in the semiconductor and electronic design automation fields, but also includes significant depth for the research professionals who will ultimately extend this work into other areas and applications. IC Interconnect Analysis begins with an in-depth coverage of delay metrics, including the ubiquitous Elmore delay and its many variations. This is followed by an outline of moment matching methods, calculating moments efficiently, and Krylov subspace methods for model order reduction. The final two chapters describe how to interface these reduced-order models to circuit simulators and gate-level timing analyzers respectively. IC Interconnect Analysis is written for CAD tool developers, IC designers and graduate students.

This text is about methods used for the computer simulation of analog systems. It concentrates on electronic applications, but many of the methods are applicable to other engineering problems as well. This revised edition (1st, 1983) encompasses recent theoretical developments and program-writing ti

Photovoltaic generation is one of the cleanest forms of energy conversion available. One of the advantages offered by solar energy is its potential to provide sustainable electricity in areas not served by the conventional power grid. Optimisation of Photovoltaic Power Systems details explicit modelling, control and optimisation of the most popular stand-alone applications such as pumping, power supply, and desalination. Each section is concluded by an example using the MATLAB (R) and Simulink (R) packages to help the reader understand and evaluate the performance of different photovoltaic systems. Optimisation of Photovoltaic Power Systems provides engineers, graduate and postgraduate students with the means to understand, assess and develop their own photovoltaic systems. As such, it is an essential tool for all those wishing to specialise in stand-alone photovoltaic systems. Optimisation of Photovoltaic Power Systems aims to enable all researchers in the field of electrical engineering to thoroughly understand the concepts of photovoltaic systems; find solutions to their problems; and choose the appropriate mathematical model for optimising photovoltaic energy.

"Memory Mass Storage" describes the fundamental storage technologies, like Semiconductor, Magnetic, Optical and Uncommon, detailing the main technical characteristics of the storage devices. It deals not only with semiconductor and hard disk memory, but also with different ways to manufacture and assembly them, and with their application to meet market requirements. It also provides an

introduction to the epistemological issues arising in defining the process of remembering, as well as an overview on human memory,

and an interesting excursus about biological memories and their organization, to better understand how the best memory we have, our brain, is able to imagine and design memory."

Graphene has emerged as a potential candidate to replace traditional CMOS for a number of electronic applications; this book presents the latest advances in graphene nanoelectronics and the potential benefits of using graphene in a wide variety of electronic applications. The book also provides details on various methods to grow graphene, including epitaxial, CVD, and chemical methods. This book serves as a spring-board for anyone trying to start working on graphene. The book is also suitable to experts who wish to update themselves with the latest findings in the field.

This book presents a new optimization flow for quantum circuits realization. At the reversible level, optimization algorithms are presented to reduce the quantum cost. Then, new mapping approaches to decompose reversible circuits to quantum circuits using different quantum libraries are described. Finally, optimization techniques to reduce the quantum cost or the delay are applied to the resulting quantum circuits. Furthermore, this book studies the complexity of reversible circuits and quantum circuits from a theoretical perspective.

This book includes a set of rigorously reviewed world-class manuscripts addressing and detailing state-of-the-art research projects in the areas of Engineering Education, Instructional Technology, Assessment, and E-learning.

The book presents selected papers form the conference proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering Education, Instructional Technology, Assessment, and E-learning (EIAE 2006). All aspects of the conference were managed on-line.

Stochastic Resonance: Theory and Applications deals with the theory of noise-added systems and in particular with Stochastic Resonance, a quite novel theory that was introduced in the 1980s to provide better understanding of some natural phenomena (e.g. ice age recurrence). Following the very first works, a number of different applications to both natural and human-produced phenomena were proposed. The book aims to improve the understanding of noise-based techniques and to focus on practical applications of this class of phenomena (an aspect that has been very poorly investigated up to now). Based on this objective, the book is roughly divided into two parts. The first part deals with the essential theory of noise-added systems and in particular a new approach to noise-added techniques that allows a number of strategies proposed in previous years to be unified. The proposed approach also allows real-time control of the noise characteristics, assuring optimal system performance. In the second part a large number of applications are described in detail in the field of electric and electronic devices, with the aim of allowing readers to build their own experimental set. The book comes with a diskette of educational software that the authors developed. Stochastic Resonance: Theory and Applications is an invaluable reference for students, researchers and engineering professionals working in the fields of electric and electronic measurements, electronics and signal theory.

A review of the electrical properties, performance and physical mechanisms of the main silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials and devices. Particular attention is paid to the reliability of SOI structures operating in harsh conditions. The first part of the book deals with material technology and describes the SIMOX and ELTRAN technologies, the smart-cut technique, SiCOI structures and MBE growth. The second part covers reliability of devices operating under extreme conditions, with an examination of low and high temperature operation of deep submicron MOSFETs and novel SOI technologies and circuits, SOI in harsh environments and the properties of the buried oxide. The third part deals with the characterization of advanced SOI materials and devices, covering laser-recrystallized SOI layers, ultrashort SOI MOSFETs and nanostructures, gated diodes and SOI devices produced by a variety of techniques. The last part reviews future prospects for SOI structures, analyzing wafer bonding techniques, applications of oxidized porous silicon, semi-insulating silicon materials, self-organization of silicon dots and wires on SOI and some new physical phenomena.

The main thrust of the rapid advance of microwave technology over the past four decades has been directed toward and powered by the development of new solid-state devices and circuits. In many cases, however, technological development has advanced with such speed that it has laxed the ability of professionals and educators to keep up with it, leaving both students and working electrical engineers with an incomplete knowledge of modern microwave technologies. Microwave Solid-State Circuits and Applications offers a comprehensive presentation of microwave technologies based on solid-state devices and circuits, with emphasis on operational principles and techniques for incorporating these devices into circuit applications. Fundamental design equations are derived and practical examples are given whenever possible. More than 300 illustrations serve to clarify principles and concepts under discussion, and a set of problems at the end of each chapter helps strengthen students' grasp of the subject. The book is organized into three sections: a review of fundamental principles in transmission lines and circuits, and semiconductor physics; two-terminal solid-state devices, circuits, and applications; and three-terminal solid-state devices, circuits, and applications. In addition, there is a special chapter on noise figures and some system parameters for receiver design. An ideal textbook for one-semester, senior-level or graduate courses in microwave solid-state circuits, this self-contained volume is also an excellent reference for practicing microwave, antenna, and solid-state engineers.

This book describes the design of a receiver front-end circuit for operation in the 60GHz range in 90nm CMOS. Physical layout of the test circuit and post-layout simulations for the implementation of a test chip including the QVCO and the first stage divider are also presented. The content of this book is particularly of interest to those working on mm-wave frequency generation and signal reception.

Regular Nanofabrics in Emerging Technologies gives a deep insight into both fabrication and design aspects of emerging semiconductor technologies, that represent potential candidates for the post-CMOS era. Its approach is unique, across different fields, and it offers a synergetic view for a public of different communities ranging from technologists, to circuit designers, and computer scientists. The book presents two technologies as potential candidates for future semiconductor devices and systems and it shows how fabrication issues can be addressed at the design level and vice versa. The reader either for academic or research purposes will find novel material that is explained carefully for both experts and non-initiated readers. Regular Nanofabrics in Emerging Technologies is a survey of post-CMOS technologies. It explains processing, circuit and system level design for people with various backgrounds.

Embedded systems are characterized by the presence of processors running application-specific software. Recent years have seen a large growth of such systems, and this trend is projected to continue with the growth of systems on a chip. Many of these systems have strict performance and cost requirements. To design these systems, sophisticated timing analysis tools are needed to accurately determine the extreme case (best case and worst case) performance of the software components. Existing techniques for this analysis have one or more of the following limitations: they cannot model complicated programs they cannot model advanced micro-architectural features of the processor, such as cache memories and pipelines they cannot be easily retargeted for new hardware platforms. In Performance Analysis of Real-Time Embedded Software, a new timing analysis technique is presented to overcome the above limitations. The technique determines the bounds on the extreme case (best case and worst case) execution time of a program when running on a given hardware system. It partitions the problem into two sub-problems: program path analysis and microarchitecture modeling. Performance Analysis of Real-Time Embedded Software will be of interest to Design Automation professionals as well as designers of circuits and systems.

The general trend of modern network devices towards greater intelligence and programmability is accelerating the development of systems that are increasingly autonomous and to a certain degree self-managing. Examples range from router scripting environments to fully programmable server blades. This has opened up a new field of computer science research, reflected in this new volume. This selection of contributions to the first ever international workshop on network-embedded management applications (NEMA) features six papers selected from submissions to the workshop, held in October 2010 at Niagara Falls, Canada. They represent a wide cross-section of the current work in this vital field of inquiry. Covering a diversity of perspectives, the volume's dual structure first of all examines the 'enablers' for NEMAs-the platforms, frameworks, and development environments which facilitate the evolution of network-embedded management and applications. The second section of the book covers network-embedded applications that might both empower and benefit from such enabling platforms. These papers cover topics ranging from deciding where to best place management control functions inside a network to a discussion of how multi-core hardware processors can be leveraged for traffic filtering applications. The section concludes with an analysis of a delay-tolerant network application in the context of the 'One Laptop per Child' program. There is a growing recognition that it is vital to make network operation and administration as easy as possible to contain operational expenses and cope with ever shorter control cycles. This volume provides researchers in the field with the very latest in current thinking.

This book presents efficient visualization techniques, a prerequisite for the interactive exploration of complex data sets. High performance is demonstrated as a process of devising algorithms for the fast graphics processing units (GPUs) of modern graphics hardware. Coverage includes parallelization on cluster computers with several GPUs, adaptive rendering methods, and non-photorealistic rendering techniques for visualization.

This book contains extended and revised versions of the best papers that were presented during the thirteenth edition of the IFIP TC 10 International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration, a Global System-on-Chip Design and CAD conference.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a forum to exchange ideas and show industrial and academic research results in the field of microelectronics design. The current trend toward increasing chip integration and technology process advancements brings about stimulating new challenges both at the physical and system-design levels, as well as in the test of these systems.

Provides the understanding and practical skills needed to develop and maintain an effective ESD control program for manufacturing, storage, and handling of ESD sensitive components This essential guide to ESD control programs explains the principles and practice of ESD control in an easily accessible way whilst also providing more depth and a wealth of references for those who want to gain a deeper knowledge of the subject. It describes static electricity and ESD principles such as triboelectrification, electrostatic fields, and induced voltages, with the minimum of theory or mathematics. It is designed for the reader to "dip into" as required, rather than need to read cover to cover. The ESD Control Program Handbook begins with definitions and commonly used terminology, followed by the principles of static electricity and ESD control. Chapter 3 discusses ESD susceptible electronic devices, and how ESD susceptibility of a component is measured. This is followed by the "Seven habits of a highly effective ESD program", explaining the essential activities of an effective ESD control program. While most texts mainly address manual handling of ESD susceptible devices, Chapter 5 extends the discussion to ESD control in automated systems, processes and handling, which form a major part of modern electronic manufacture. Chapter 6 deals with requirements for compliance given by the IEC 61340-5-1 and ANSI/ESD S20.20 ESD control standards. Chapter 7 gives an overview of the selection, use, care and maintenance of equipment and furniture commonly used to control ESD risks. The chapter explains how these often work together as part of a system and must be specified with that in mind. ESD protective packaging is available in an extraordinary range of forms from bags, boxes and bubble wrap to tape and reel packaging for automated processes. The principles and practice of this widely misunderstood area of ESD control are introduced in Chapter 8. The thorny question of how to evaluate an ESD control program is addressed in Chapter 9 with a goal of compliance with a standard as well as effective control of ESD risks and possible customer perceptions. Whilst evaluating an existing ESD control program provides challenges, developing an ESD control program from scratch provides others. Chapter 10 gives an approach to this. Standard test methods used in compliance with ESD control standards are explained and simple test procedures given in Chapter 11. ESD Training has long been recognised as essential in maintaining effective ESD control. Chapter 12 discusses ways of covering essential topics and how to demonstrate static electricity in action. The book ends with a look at where ESD control may go in the near future. The ESD Control Program Handbook Gives readers a sound understanding of the subject to analyze the ESD control requirements of manufacturing processes, and develop an effective ESD control program Provides practical knowledge, as well as sufficient theory and background to understand the principles of ESD control Teaches how to track and identify how ESD risks arise, and how to identify fitting means for minimizing or eliminating them Emphasizes working with modern ESD control program standards IEC 61340-5-1 and ESD S20:20 The ESD Control Program Handbook is an invaluable reference for anyone tasked with setting up, evaluating, or maintaining an effective ESD control program, training personnel, or making ESD control related measurements. It would form an excellent basis for a University course on the subject as well as a guide and resource for industry professionals.