CHIPS R&D: Nanocalorimetry for Semiconductors and Semiconductor Process Metrology, LDV

The Nanocalorimetry for Semiconductors project addresses the second grand challenge - Advanced Metrology for Future Microelectronics Manufacturing by accelerating the development of thermal properties measurement capabilities for small scale materials and devices; a measurement gap that has repeatedly been identified as a critical limitation for improving overall energy efficiency of memory and logic all the way to improvements for 3D integration of dies and chiplets. Once the initial planned work to improve the measurement system is accomplished, this project could also provide data for the Grand Challenge IV - Modeling and Simulating Semiconductor Materials, Designs, and Components. The first objective is to develop a robust simultaneous sample mass measurement capability to be able to report accurate specific values (which require the ability to quantify the quantity of material being tested). The samples are too light for