Resistivity research uncovers thin film star material

Imec’s Zsolt Tökei discusses the latest outcome of imec's research on binary and ternary alloys for advanced interconnect metallization schemes with Silicon Semiconductor’s Phil Alsop.

Portrait of a researcher in front of a colorful thin-film microchip graphic and metallic lattice structure

Zsolt Tőkei, fellow and program director of nano-interconnects at imec, explains the work behind the first experimental evidence that the resistivity of a thin conductor film on a 300mm silicon wafer can be lower than that of copper or ruthenium. Zsolt explains the research methodology of the project, commenced in 2016, and shares his excitement as to how the research will identify and categorize various binary and ternary alloys that can outperform copper and ruthenium when it comes to interconnect lines.

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Source content: https://www.imec-int.com/en/articles/resistivity-research-uncovers-thin-film-star-material

This video was originally published in Silicon Semiconductor.

Authors

Portrait of Zsolt Tokei standing with arms crossed in front of large office windows

Zsolt Tokei

Imec fellow and incoming program director of 3D system integration
Author

Zsolt Tokei is Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Interconnects at imec. He joined imec in 1999 and since then held various technical positions in the organization. First as a process engineer and researcher in the field of copper low-k interconnects, then he headed the metal section. Later he became principal scientist, Program Director Nano-Interconnects and, in 2016, was appointed Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Interconnect. He earned a M.S. (1994) in physics from the University Kossuth in Debrecen, Hungary. In the framework of a co-directed thesis between the Hungarian University Kossuth and the French University Aix Marseille-III, he obtained his PhD (1997) in physics and materials science. From 1998 he worked at the Max-Planck Institute of Düsseldorf, Germany, as a post-doctorate researcher. From the date of joining imec he continued working on a range of interconnect issues including scaling, metallization, electrical characterization, module integration, reliability and system aspects.

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