New Project Will Improve Chip Performance

Semiconductors are vital in every area of our lives. Although in most cases, they perform as intended, often they can fail when least expected. Manufacturing them is also a very complex process with many stages that can provide lower yields than expected yields due to defects in the materials made to manufacture them or in the processes. Often advanced semiconductors are binned based on their capabilities. This is often the case in the latest geometries, when MPUs and GPU chips are all fabricated on a single wafer, but sold as different variants depending on their end specifications.

In an attempt to understand the processes of making chips more reliable and getting a more predictable yield, the University at Buffalo has been chosen by the Department of Defense (DoD) to lead a $7.5 million project that will develop new concepts to perform precision testing of the important qualities of semiconductor chips. The goals of the research are to increase our fundamental understanding of physical processes that could be used to evaluate chip performance and security, and creating new, ultra-sensitive testing strategies that build on this knowledge. The research will be funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research through the DoD’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).

UB researcher Paras Prasad, the project’s principal investigator, said, “Microelectronic circuits are omnipresent in our lives. We will develop new and dramatically improved ways to ensure that computer chips are authentic and will work as expected. This helps to avoid potentially devastating consequences of either intentional or unintentional malfunction of everything from smartphones to fighter jets.”

Prasad is SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Medicine and Electrical Engineering, and executive director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB). His job on the project is to coordinate the work of a team of researchers from several institutions, including UB, Columbia University, Boston University, the University of Maryland, the University of Arizona, the University of Central Florida, the National University of Singapore and the University of Cambridge.

“Our project is about is establishing new techniques for probing or monitoring chips so that you can enhance their performance even further,” says Jonathan Bird, professor and chair of electrical engineering at UB and a co-principal investigator on the grant.

The MURI award will provide the funding for a variety of studies, including ones that will exploit the power of quantum science and engineering. Monitoring heat generation, using advanced microscopy to study circuits, and detecting ultra-weak electric and magnetic signals around chips will be among many areas of interest. The research team will also look to ensure the proper operation and security of microelectronics. A single chip can contain trillions of transistors, with features as small as 5 nanometers. Probing complex networks of such miniscule devices requires new methods and approaches.

The team will also partner with researchers in the Air Force Research Laboratory. The lead program manager for the grant is Brett Pokines, who heads the Agile Science of Test and Evaluation program at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

https://www.buffalo.edu/