The following tutorials were offered at the 2003 MRS Spring Meeting.

Symposium Tutorial Program

· May concentrate on new, rapidly breaking areas of research or provide an overview of established fields

· All tutorials are integrated into a related symposium program

Symposium A
Monday, April 21, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

STA: Amorphous and Polysilicon Materials and Devices for Large-Area Electronics

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and micro- or polycrystalline silicon (µc -Si, poly-Si) are important technological materials for large-area electronics, with applications to thin film solar cells, active matrix liquid crystal displays (AM-LCDs), optical scanners, and radiation imaging. The course described the growth and preparation, basic material properties, device physics, and state-of-the-art processing issues of modern large-area array technology based on amorphous or polycrystalline thin silicon films. Special emphasis placed on the relation between material properties and device performance.

Instructors:
Sigurd Wagner
Princeton University

Joao Pedro Conde
Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon

Symposium E

STE: Challenges of Cu/Low-k Interconnects and Emerging Technologies Beyond

The morning session covered materials challenges and reliability issues. The tutorial began with the challenges and road map for low-k materials below k < 2.2. This was followed by the thermomechanical reliability of low-k materials in die/package. Then, the electromigration reliability of Cu/low-k was discussed.

The afternoon session was dedicated to emerging technologies: 3-D interconnects and wafer-level packaging. It started with an overview of the limitations in current interconnect paradigm and emerging technologies beyond Cu/low-k interconnects. This was followed by two technical topics: (1) the potential of 3D system integration and (2) wafer-level packaging technologies.

Instructors:
Raymond Vrtis
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Viswanathan (Vish) Sundararaman
Texas Instruments, Inc.

Paul S. Ho
University of Texas at Austin

Pawan Kapur
Stanford University

Peter Ramm
Fraunhofer Institute (FhG-IZM), Germany

Jurgen Wolf
Fraunhofer Institute (FhG-IZM), Germany

Symposium I

STI: Optical Material Crystalline Silicon

Silicon is by far the most widely used material in electronics. Because of its indirect gap, however, it is not suitable for light emitters. Such Si-based devices would be very useful in implementing optical functions in integrated circuits, e.g., for fiber optics communication systems, smart power devices or complex ULSI systems, where electronic cross talk is already a problem. Visible emission for displays would also be very attractive for various monolithic solutions.

The tutorial gave an introduction to the optical properties of silicon, with particular emphasis on the luminescence transitions that occur between different electronic states in silicon. In particular, the following issues were addressed:

• What electronic states are available?
  The electronic states of pure Si
  The electronic structure of impurities in Si: generic aspects of the useful "bound exciton" model
• What properties of the electronic states can we measure?
  Overview of the basic techniques, concentrating on the strengths and weaknesses of the different techniques, but without technical detail
  Chemical identification of the impurities
• What are the problems with obtaining luminescence from Si?
  Timescales of processes
  Some examples

Several directions-including the use of nanostructures like porous Si, and the formation of nanocrystals of Si, and optical doping of Si, in particular by rare earth elements-have been followed in recent years to overcome the inherent physical limitations of Si light emitters. In the second part of the tutorial, the principles, limitations, and possible improvements of optical properties of silicon were considered. In particular, taking Si:Er as an example, we discussed:

• The problems of excitation
  The possible mechanisms for energy transfer from the Si host to the optical dopant
• Non-radiative processes
• Concepts and problems in the technical realization of room temperature emitters

Finally, the chances of realizing a Si-based laser will be addressed.

The tutorial session was complemented by a brief presentation of recent developments in the field of integration of III-V-based emitting structures with the Si platform. Dr. John Zavada of ARO, who also chaired the tutorial and lead the discussion period, gave this (shorter) review.

Instructors:

Gordon Davies
King's College London

Wolfgang Jantsch
Johannes Kepler University

With a review by John Zavada, ARO

Symposium O

STO: Tissue Engineering

The rapidly expanding field of tissue engineering has capitalized upon the design and synthesis of materials that elicit specific cellular responses while maintaining desired physical properties. Accordingly, this tutorial was designed to introduce the materials scientist to the important roles that materials play in the engineering of new tissues and organs. Participants were introduced to currently used materials and potential areas of development. The biological molecules and processes that must assume a central role in material design and application were then covered, and specific applications for novel materials in both soft and hard tissue engineering were discussed.

Instructors:
David Mooney, University of Michigan
Alyssa Panitch, Arizona State University
William Landis, Northeastern Ohio University

SUCCEED*

Evaluating, Selecting, and Using Computer- Enhanced Learning Technologies and Digital Learning Materials in Engineering Education

This workshop targeted faculty members interested in using computer-based learning technologies and digital learning materials in their courses. Faculty members interested in using materials developed by others were the primary target audience for this workshop, although faculty planning to develop their own materials were also encouraged to attend the workshop. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce faculty to a set of criteria and methods useful in determining the utility of technologies and materials in helping course goals. The workshop focused on the different resources, including digital libraries and research available for faculty to use, to locate and select helpful computer-based materials, as well as on how to evaluate those materials. In the first half of the workshop, the participants were introduced to various courseware and learning technologies, and a set of selection criteria. The second half of the workshop provided participants with hands-on experience in applying the criteria and processes for selecting courseware introduced in the first section of this workshop. They interacted with various digital learning materials and learning technologies, testing them against a set of selection criteria. Additionally, participants had the opportunity to explore different methods of adapting existing materials and learn a little about developing their own courseware. Examples for this workshop were taken from general engineering disciplines but also focused specifically on courseware of interest to faculty members working in the materials research area.

*SUCCEED is an NSF-funded coalition of engineering colleges in the southeast focused on education issues for engineering.

Instructors
Joe Tront, Virginia Tech
Brandon Muramatsu, University of California, Berkeley
Flora McMartin, University of California, Berkeley