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Motivated by an increasing demand for functionality and reliability of systems operating in harsh, ionizing-radiation environments, the core of the present research is an investigation of the response of rare-earth-doped, aluminosilicate fibers to ionizing radiation. These rare-earth-doped fibers, consisting of fibers doped with ions of erbium (Er³⁺) and ytterbium (Yb³⁺) designed for use in amplifier systems, reveal average specific losses in response to ⁶⁰Co gamma radiation to be in the range of 0.0285 - 0.193 dB/(m•krad(Si)) at wavelengths from 1300 nm to 1400 nm. An ionizing dose rate dependence was identified in which high dose rates of approximately 40 rad(Si)/s invariably lead to higher induced losses than lower dose rates of approximately 14 rad(Si)/s, indicating the possibility of complex radiation-related phenomena underlying the observed absorption. Data clearly show that Er³⁺-doped fibers are more sensitive to ionizing-radiation in comparison to Yb³⁺-doped fibers, while Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ co-doped fibers are found to be the least sensitive to radiation of all the fibers examined. Evidence of color center formation associated with the dopant aluminum is found in results of visible spectroscopy conducted on gamma-irradiated preform samples and on fibers flown in low-Earth orbit. Near infrared spectroscopic data is consistent with absorption derived from this dopant as well, with the interpretation of band-tailing from the visible portion of the spectrum. Evidence of the formation of a defect intrinsic to the silicate host matrix, the Non-Bridging Oxygen Hole Center (NBOHC), is also found following ionizing radiation of the optical fiber preforms. Since the observed ionizing-radiation-induced absorption is concentrated in the visible portion of the spectrum, the performance of actively operated rare-earth-doped amplifiers is largely impacted by the pump wavelength, which is located at higher energies within the near-infrared portion of the spectrum and therefore clos

Recent portable electronic technologies require the power management circuit be efficient, small and cost effective. The switched-capacitor (SC) converter provides a trade-off between the efficiency, the size and the cost that is desirable in many of these new portable technologies. This dissertation investigates different circuit techniques and SC converter topologies to make the SC converters fully adapt to the portable system requirements. To make the SC converter efficient over a wide range of input and output voltages, a family of SC power stages with multiple gain ratio (GR) is developed. Multiple GR allows the converter to provide step-down or step-up voltage conversion while increasing the average efficiency of the converter. These power stages are also capable of providing interleaving regulation that has been proved to be effective in reducing the input and the output noise of the converter. Unlike conventional interleaving, the technique developed in this research uses fewer switches and capacitors. The research also contributes in developing circuit techniques such as charge recycling in the bottom plate parasitic capacitors, local gate driving and adaptive body biasing to reduce the power loss in monolithic SC converter implementation. To control the SC power stage for accurate regulation and fast transient response, a control scheme named adaptive gain/pulse control is developed. The research also investigates the use of multipath compensation scheme in SC converters for ultra fast and low noise performance. The techniques and the topologies developed for SC converters in this research can be effectively implemented in the portable devices to reduce cost, and improve efficiency which leads to longer battery life and circuit implementation using smaller areas.

This report presents results from a series of experiments in which YAG samples (undoped, as well as doped with Nd and Cr3+) were exposed to ionizing radiation (gamma rays and UV). These experiments were performed for the purpose of investigating the various phtodarkening processes taking place in these materials in response to the ionizing radiation. The purpose of this investigation was to establish whether and how co-doping YAG with Cr3+ improves the material's resistance to photodarkening due to the ionizing radiation. The experiments tracked time-resolved transmittance of the samples at 1064 nm in immediate response a pulsed exposure to the ionizing radiation, as well as steady-state spectrally-resolved changed in the samples' optical absorption after the irradiation. The investigation revealed a number of photodarkening processes occurring in the samples in response to the ionizing radiation, both transient and permanent. It was further revealed that inclusion of Cr3+ ions in YAG significantly reduces these photodarkening processes, improving the material's radiation resistance. It was observed that materials containing at least 0.5 at% Cr3+ are essentially radiation-hardened, resisting both transient and steady-state changes in transmittance observed in the materials not containing Cr3+.

Dispersion, attenuation, and crosstalk are several major challenges that both a high-speed digital and a microwave serial link must overcome to achieve their desirable performance. These phenomena are directly related to the frequency dependency of the dielectric property of the material used in package and interconnect. The dielectric property of a material is commonly measured by its manufacturer in a particular direction at a few discrete frequencies using resonator and waveguide methodology. Since the dielectric property may vary during manufacturing processing, the measurements taken by the manufacturer might be not adequate. Moreover, the dielectric property of a material in a bandwidth that covers at least the second harmonics of the fundamental operational frequency is required to accurately predict the link performance. One of the efforts in this research is to investigate the methodology of realizing broadband characteristics of the dielectric property of a material in its "as packaged" configuration using various transmission line topologies, such as microstrip line and Co-Planar Waveguide (CPW). Transitions from CPW to other transmission line topologies are mandatory if CPW probes are used to achieve broadband and repeatable measurements. Since microstrip line is one of the transmission line topologies involved in this research, a research effort is dedicated to develop a broadband CPW-to-microstrip line transition. An effort is also expended to creating casual material models that can be used in electromagnetic simulators to appropriately model the link based on the polarization mechanism of the materials. In addition to focusing on the measurement method in frequency domain, Short Pulse Propagation (SPP), a time domain method, is investigated as well. A virtual test bench is created to investigate the correlation between impedance variations in stripline structures due to fabricated tolerance and the attenuation predicted by SPP.

Electro-Chemical Mechanical Planarization (ECMP) is a new and highly promising technology just reaching industrial application; investigation of chemistries, consumables, and tool/control approaches are needed to overcome technological limitations. Development of chemical formulations for ECMP presents several challenges. Unlike conventional CMP, formulations for ECMP may not need an oxidant. Organic additives, especially inhibitors used to control planarity (i.e. to protect recessed regions), need to be stable under applied anodic potential. To have a high current efficiency, the applied current should not induce decomposition of the formulations. In addition, to enable clearing of the copper film, the interactions between multiple exposed materials (barrier material as well as copper) must be considered. Development of a full sequence ECMP process would require the removal of the barrier layer as well. Chemical systems that exhibit a 1:1 selectivity between the barrier layer and copper would be ideal for the barrier removal step of ECMP. The main goal of this research is to investigate the chemistries suitable for ECMP of copper and tantalum films. Copper was electroplated onto the gold electrode of quartz crystals, and its dissolution/passivation behavior in hydroxylamine solutions was studied at different applied potential values. The dissolution rate of copper is pH dependent and exhibits a maximum in the vicinity of pH 6. Copper dissolution increases with respect to overpotential (η) and dissolution rates as high as 6000 Å/min have been obtained at overpotential of 750mV. While both benzotriazole (BTA) and salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) serve as good inhibitors at lower overpotentials, their effectiveness decreases at higher overpotentials. A fundamental study was undertaken to evaluate the usefulness of a sulfonic acid based chemical system for the removal of tantalum under ECMP conditions. Tantalum as well as copper samples were polished at low pressures (~0.5

Total ionizing dose (TID) radiation effects modeling and simulation on digital, analog and mixed signal systems remains a significant bottle neck in the development of radiation-hardened electronics. Unverified modeling techniques and the very high computational cost with today's commercial simulation tools are among the primary hindrances to the timely hardened IC design, particularly to the design in commercially available processes. SPICE-based methods have been used for total dose radiation degradation simulations. While SPICE is effective in predicting the circuit behavior under circumstances when the electrical parameters stay constant during operation, it's not effective predicting aging behavior with gradual change with time. Behavioral modeling language, such as VHDL-AMS is needed to effectively capture the time-dependent degradation in these parameters in response to environmental stresses, such as TID radiation.This dissertation describes a method for accurate and rapid TID effect simulation of complex mixed-signal circuits. The method uses a hierarchical structure where small sub-circuits, such as voltage comparators, references, etc. are simulated using SPICE. These SPICE simulations of small circuits for multiple radiation doses are used to tune behavioral VHDL-AMS models for the sub-circuits. The created behavioral models therefore contain the electrical circuit behavior combined with the radiation response. The entire combined system is then simulated using VHDL-AMS.In a simulation experiment that was used to validate the speed and accuracy of the new method, a commercial 8-bit sub-ranging analog to digital converter netlist containing more than 2000 MOS transistors was simulated with TID models using a contemporary SPICE-based method and the new method. The new method shortened the simulation time by three orders of magnitude, while accuracy remained within reasonable limits compared to the SPICE-based method. Moreover, the automated procedures for

Silicon Germanium (Si1-xGex) is an alloy semiconductor that has caught considerable attention of the semiconductor industry in the past decade. Effects of strain in thin films are the reason for this. Strain leads to considerable deformation of bands providing enhanced mobility for both electrons and holes. Another important aspect of SiGe is the reduction of band gap. This makes band gap engineering feasible in all silicon technology. Yet another attractive point is the adaptability and compatibility of SiGe to silicon process technology.In CMOS circuits the p-channel MOSFET needs more than double the area of the n-channel MOSFET due to the lower mobility of holes in silicon. Hence a p-channel hetero MOSFET (HMOSFET) is chosen as the object of this dissertation.A simple general device structure that can provide considerable enhancement in performance, compared to a conventional MOSFET, is selected. A one dimensional Poisson equation is solved for this hetero junction device. Using these results an Excel spreadsheet is used as a tool to design a complete analytical program that can provide internal as well as terminal parameters of this device. The analytical program is tested by comparing the results with ISE-TCAD numerical device simulator results. The results were found to match very well. This analytical program yields results in a fraction of the time compared to numerical programs. For the device of choice variable parameters are identified. It is found that these parameters are interconnected in many ways and trade offs between them need to be applied.From the front end of the spreadsheet input parameters can be varied and parameters like potentials, hole density and terminal characteristics can be plotted very easily while simultaneously computing other parameters like threshold voltage and saturation current.The main contribution of this dissertation research is(1) Development of a very efficient and accurate analytical program to interactively design and o

In copper chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), in situ detection of barrier to dielectric layer transition is typically done using an optical reflectance technique. The introduction of carbon doped oxides (CDOs) as low-dielectric constant (k) materials for dielectric layers has opened up the possibility of using spectroscopic techniques for detecting such transitions more efficiently. The vibrational frequencies of the bonds between C, H, O, and Si in these low-k materials may be readily detected by spectroscopic techniques such as Raman and infrared (IR) spectroscopies. Since CMP is carried out in aqueous media, IR spectroscopy is not very desirable due to strong absorption of water in the same region as C-H vibrations (2800 cm⁻¹ to 3300 cm⁻¹). In contrast, Raman spectroscopy shows minimal water interference and can be used to efficiently monitor the signal from CDO films even in aqueous environments that prevail under CMP conditions. The research reported in this dissertation concerns the use of Raman spectroscopy in detecting the transition from tantalum (Ta) barrier layer to CDO dielectric layer, insitu. Intensities of Raman peaks characteristic of Si-Si vibrations from silicon substrates and C-H vibrations from low-k materials were used for monitoring CDO thickness and detecting removal of Ta layer. An abrasion cell was integrated with a Raman spectrometer to demonstrate the feasibility of Raman monitoring in-situ. Additionally, an alternative method was investigated for monitoring transitions in highly fluorescent low-k materials where Raman can not be used. The fluorescence intensity was used to effectively monitor Ta to low-k transitions. As a secondary objective, the Raman technique was used to monitor the composition of polishing slurries, which in the case of copper CMP, have a rich chemistry, which may change during the course of polishing due to consumption and decomposition of certain constituents. Various aspects, such as small layer thickness (<5

With device scaling, the current optical lithography technique is reaching its technological limit to print small features. Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) lithography has shown promise to print extremely thin lines reliably and cost-effectively. Many challenges remain before introducing EUV to large scale manufacturing. The main challenge addressed in this study is particle removal from EUV mask surfaces (CrON1, CrON2, and fused silica) and thermal oxide (SiO₂). Effective pre-clean procedures were developed for each surface. As chemical cleaning methods fail to meet SEMATECH criteria, addition of megasonic energy to EUV mask cleaning baths is seen as a promising cleaning methodology. As the requirement to print fine lines needs to be met, all materials used in EUV mask fabrication either absorb the incident EUV wavelength light or reflect it. Therefore, the masks used in the industry will be reflective instead of the conventional transmissive masks. Also, for the same reason, no protective pellicle can be used leading to all the surfaces unprotected from particle contamination. To avoid the detrimental effect of the particle contamination, a cleaning study for nano-particle removal was performed. A dark field microscope was utilized to study the removal of gold nano-particles from surfaces. The cleaning procedures utilized H₂SO₄ and NH₄OH chemistries with and without megasonic irradiation. The cleaning variables were bath concentration, temperature, and megasonic power. The contamination variables were the gold nanoparticles charge and size, from 40nm to 100nm. For 100 nm negatively charged gold nano-particles deposited on a CrON1 surface, a 1:10 H₂SO₄:DI bath at boiling temperature (101°C) without megasonics gave high particle removal efficiency (PRE) values as did a 1:10 H₂SO₄:DI bath at 35°C with 100W megasonics. Comparison of removal of poly diallyl-dimethyl ammonium chloride (PDAC) coated and uncoated gold nano-particles deposited on a CrON1 surface using dilute H₂

The current semiconductor device manufacturing requires more strict control of plasma etching. In this research, plasma etching was investigated through gas phase characterization and interface reactions. Hydrogen and nitrogen were added to Ar plasmas to manipulate the electro-physical properties that were measured by a Langmuir probe system. Hydrogen addition modified the EEDF (electron energy distribution function) by increasing the electrons in high energy range. Adding N2 formed a strong bi-Maxwellian distribution. Gas addition caused the transition between ohmic and stochastic heating. Ar-CH4-H2 and Ar-N2-H2 plasmas were also tested. Hydrogen atom beam was used on porous silicon dioxide based low-k films to remove silanol groups that were generated due to the damage of films during pattern transfer. At H2 atom beam process at 150 C moved close to 60% silanol groups were removed in less than 3 min with an etching rate of 15 A/min. The apparent activation energy was 2.4 kcal/mol. Hydrogen atoms reacted with Si-O-Si and methyl groups. The etching mechanisms of CH4/H2/Ar plasma for InP were analyzed by a beam reactor system. Sputtering yield was measured, threshold energy was approximately 60 eV. Inert ion beam assisted chemical reactions gave higher etching rate. The CH4 concentration had no strong effect on etching rate after 5%. Etching rate was not sensitive to temperature up to 150 C. The adsorption of methyl groups to the surface was proposed as rate limiting step. Chemical reaction effectively reduced the surface roughness.

Clouds of contamination particles suspended in process plasma have been observed by several workers. This dissertation reports on the electrical properties of such clouds (referred to as Electrostatic Particle Traps or EPT) in an argon sputter plasma using a silicon wafer placed upon a graphite substrate. Particle traps were illuminated using a specially adopted laser scanning technique. A tuned Langmuir probe was then inserted into the region of the trap and used to map several parameters including the time-averaged plasma potential. The trap was found to be as much as 5 volts higher in plasma potential than the surrounding plasma. Elementary electrostatics dictates that the trap is a region of net positive charge with an electric field being directed outward from the trap. Thus, negatively charged particles will flow into the trap. It was also found that the electrical properties of contamination particle traps are highly dependent upon the topography of the target and the materials used, with different results being obtained for each material combination. The Langmuir probe was also found to be an effective tool for mapping the interface between the plasma and the sheath to within 0.5 mm; the interface follows the topography on the wafer electrode.