VLSI Electronics Microstructure Science, Volume 15: VLSI Metallization discusses the various issues and problems related to VLSI metallization. It details the available solutions and presents emerging trends. This volume is comprised of 10 chapters. The two introductory chapters, Chapter 1 and 2 serve as general references for the electrical and metallurgical properties of thin conducting films. Subsequent chapters review the various aspects of VLSI metallization. The order of presentation has been chosen to follow the common processing sequence. In Chapter 3, some relevant metal deposition techniques are discussed. Chapter 4 presents the methods of VLSI lithography and etching. Conducting films are first deposited at the gate definition step; therefore, the issues related to gate metallization are discussed next in Chapter 5.In Chapter 6, contact metallization is elaborated, and Chapter 7 is devoted to multilevel metallization schemes. Long-time reliability is the subject of Chapter 8, which discusses the issues of contact and interconnect electromigration. GaAs metallization is tackled in Chapter 9. The volume concludes with a general discussion of the functions of interconnect systems in VLSI. Materials scientists, processing and design engineers, and device physicists will find the book very useful.
