Moore’s law ahead: mixing old and new to keep it alive?

with Leila Ladani, 
School for Engineering of Matter Transport and Energy
Arizona State University, Tempe Arizona

March 30th, 2023, 3:00
North End Center Room 2420/2430

Since the invention of transistors 76 years ago, Moore’s law has been a good predictor of semiconductor chip advancements. However, in addition to quantum level limitations (electron tunneling) and scale limitations of the current lithography methods, current interconnect materials lag in fulfilling the needs for the next generation of semiconductor chips, limiting Moore’s law’s application to the next generation of microelectronics. Development of new materials that can handle the complexity of new generations of microelectronics and provide reliable solutions for long term performance of these devices is an absolute must.  Copper has traditionally been the material of choice in microelectronics as well as many other critical applications. However, it is reaching its limits in the current landscape of technologies. Innovative solutions require thinking outside the traditional norms. We will discuss several new manufacturing approaches that have been under investigation at Manufacturing Innovation Lab to help create the next generation of high ampacity, high strength, and reliable copper interconnects for different applications. This talk focuses on the research outcomes and provides an outlook to future directions.

Leila Ladani received her doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of Maryland at College Park, in 2007. Prior to that she received her master's degree in mechanical engineering in heat and fluid (with honor) and another master's degree in solid mechanics and her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. She is internationally recognized for her research on advanced and multi-scale manufacturing and mechanics of materials. Ladani’s research, academic involvement and outreach has been supported and recognized by NSF, NAE, NASA, US. Department of State and many others. She has been invited speaker for more than 35 talks, most recently in October of 2022, as invited speaker at MS&T conference in Pittsburgh, PA. She was invited attendee of National Academy of Engineering Frontier of engineering conference and has been selected as ASME EPPD Women Engineer. She was selected as Connecticut Women of Innovation Finalist in the category of Academic Innovation and Leadership. She is the editor of Journal of Materials Science and Engineering A and has published more than 150 refereed manuscripts and patents. She is an ASME Fellow.