This book provides an up to date survey of the state of the art of research into the materials used in information technology, and will be bought by researchers in universities, institutions as well as research workers in the semiconductor and IT industries.

Euromat is the biennial meeting of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) constituted by its 24 member societies in Europe. The 2003 meeting took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, and was organised by the French, German and Swiss member societies: Societe Francaise de Metallurgie et de Materiaux (SF2M) Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Materialkunde (DGM) Schweizerischer Verband fur die Materialtechnik (SVMT) The scientific programme of the EUROMAT 2003 congress was divided into 15 topics that in turn were substructured into 47 symposia. The present volume of the Euromat Publication series refers to selected papers of the Topic A: Materials for Information Technology Peter Paul Schepp Conference Organiser of EUROMAT 2003 Preface Information technology (IT) is driving the need for research, development and - troduction of new materials and concepts for applications requiring significantly increased electrical and optical functionality. In particular, microelectronic pr- ucts must be improved continuously to meet performance demands while mainta- ing acceptable levels of reliability. For the semiconductor industry, the challenges to process technology and advanced materials are outlined in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). Microelectronic and, in the longer term, nanoelectronic products of future technology generations rely on - vanced materials for the so-called front-end-of-line and back-end-of-line processes on the waferlevel (die level) as well as for assembly and packaging. More than ever before, the dramatic productivity enhancement of the IT era will only be p- sible using advanced materials. Transistor and interconnect scaling has brought microelectronics a long way."