Aims & Scope

Nanotechnology and Processing — Electronics, photonics, MEMS and Life Sciences
Affiliated with iMNEs

Microelectronic Engineering is the premier journal focused on the fabrication and characterization of micro/nano-electronic materials, devices and circuits (including novel electronic nanomaterials), as well as the understanding of their working mechanisms, performance, yield, variability, stability, and reliability. The journal also focuses on the techniques that make possible the fabrication and characterization of such devices and circuits, and on the materials involved in them. Occasionally, outstanding papers on simulation of materials properties, device figures-of-merit or compact modeling of circuits and systems may be accepted. The following topics are of special interest:

Devices

    Photonic and optoelectronic devices (including, sensors, actuators, phototransistors)
    Transistors (including ultra-scaled, thin film, organic, ferroelectric)
    Resistive switching devices (memristors, RRAM, PCRAM, FeRAM, MRAM)
    Magnetic and spintronic devices
    MEMS and NEMS (including power, RF, magnetic, organic)
    Flexible electronic devices (including wearable, printed, paper)
    Devices for energy harvesting (piezoelectric, flexoelectric, photovoltaic, solar cells)
    Bioelectronic devices (molecular detection, biomimetic, diagnosis)
    Device-level simulations (including variability and reliability)

Materials

    Wide bandgap semiconductors
    Dielectrics (low K and high K)
    Two-dimensional (2D) Materials and related transferring techniques
    Nanotubes, nanowires, and other nanomaterials and nanostrctures for device fabrication
    Interconnects, metallization and barrier materials
    New Resist Materials
    Silicon on insulators
    Polymers and flexible substrates, including biocompatible materials
    Atomistic simulations of materials properties

Fabrication and characterization processes

    Thin films deposition techniques (CVD, ALD, evaporation, sputtering, MBE, plasma)
    Lithography (including optical, EUV, electron beam, nanoimpring, particle-assisted, mask less, X-ray optical methods, emerging methods and limits, as well as resists)
    Pattern transfer (including ion, plasma and wet transfer, as well as transfer of 2D materials)
    Integration processes (including inkjet printing, 3D printing, 3D integration)
    Top-down and bottom-up self-assembly processes
    Annealing and its effect in the materials (including crystallization, wrinkling, de-wetting)
    Nanometrology (TEM, SEM, EDX, EELS, STM, AFM and related setups)

Circuits and applications

    Sensing and actuation, including bio-compatible applications
    Signal souring and transfer
    Logic operations and data processing
    Electronic memories and information storage
    Artificial neural networks and neuromorphic computing
    Compact modeling of electronic circuits
    Quantum computing

Five different types of articles are considered:

    Research articles that report regular original research that produces significant advancement.
    Accelerated Publications (Letters) that feature exciting research breakthroughs.
    Review Articles that inform readers of the latest research and advances in a topic within the broad field of microelectronic engineering. This includes roadmaps and guides proposing the recommended methods in a specific field.
    Short / Technical notes intended for original limited investigations or short description of original industrial or industrially-related research and development work
    News and Opinions that comment on topical issues or express views on the developments in related fields, or comment on previously published work

Special Issue on Advances in Micro- and Nanoelectronic Devices and Circuit Engineering
Submission Date: 2025-01-31

The high performance of microelectronic devices stands as the cornerstone for the long-lasting and fault-free operation of intricate electrical circuits in their diverse applications. While significant strides have enhanced the performance and structure of integrated semiconductor devices in recent decades, persistent challenges continue which affect the robust operation of transistors and circuits. For example, modern MOS transistors suffer from imperfections at the atomic level, which evolve as electrically active defects and can induce a gradual drift in device and circuit performance over time. One of the most prominent issues in this context is the so-called bias temperature instability (BTI). This effect is typically linked to an alteration of the device threshold voltage. Furthermore, BTI-related effects are responsible for increased device-to-device variability when nodes are scaled, which emerges as a severe issue for circuit reliability. Nevertheless, despite dedicated efforts and model development, the intricate physical mechanisms underpinning BTI remain subject to contentious debate.

Guest editors:

Michael Waltl is a Full Professor of Robust Microelectronics, an IEEE Senior Member, and the director of the device characterization laboratory at the Institute for Microelectronics. He obtained his doctoral degree in technical sciences (summa cum laude) from TU Wien in 2016. Furthermore, he currently leads the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Single-Defect Spectroscopy and several FFG projects. In addition, Dr. Waltl heads several research projects with international industrial partners imec, ams OSRAM AG, Infineon, and more. In 2018 Dr. Waltl was a visiting researcher at imec, Belgium, Europe, and Stanford University, CA, USA. He is the (co-)recipient of various best paper awards (IIRW2014, DRC2019, IIRW2019, IEDM2019, etc.) and serves on the technical program and management committee of international conferences and workshops (IEDM, IRPS, IIRW, etc.). He is an Associate Editor in the Microelectronics Engineering Journal and is a reviewer of numerous renowned Journals including Nature Electronics, IEEE TED, Microelectronics Reliability, Journal of Applied Physics, and many more.

Florian Huemer is a University Assistant at the Institute of Computer Engineering at TU Wien, where he also obtained his doctoral degree (with honors) in 2022. He has authored and co-authored more than 20 peer-reviewed conference and journal contributions, two of which received a best paper award. He contributed as a reviewer to several internal conferences and journals (ASYNC, DDECS, DSD) as well as to the organization of such events. Since 2013, he has also been involved in a number of ellipsometry-based measurement engineering projects at the Institute of Production Engineering and Photonic Technologies at TU Wien. His research interests include asynchronous and fault-tolerant circuit design with a special focus on quasi-delay-insensitive circuits.

Michael Hofbauer is a University Assistant at TU Wien and obtained his doctoral degree sub auspiciis praesidentis (i.e., with the highest possible honors) at TU Wien in 2017. He has contributed to various national (FWF, FFG, WWTF) and international (EU FP7, EU H2020) projects. He recently finished his own FWF standalone project about precision sensing. Currently, he co-leads an FWF standalone project as well as an FFG project. He is a co-recipient of several best paper and honorary mention awards- (IEEE ISCAS 2012, IEEE CAS 2012, IEEE SAS 2014) and gave invited talks at ISSW 2022 (Graz) and INSQT 2023 (Jena). He contributed as a reviewer to numerous renowned journals such as Scientific Reports, IEEE TNS, IEEE TCAS1&2, IEEE TED, and many more. He has authored and co-authored more than 80 conferences and journal contributions as well as one book. His main research interests are in precision optical sensing, radiation effects in electronics, control and read-out of integrated photonics, as well as single-photon detection.

Special issue information:

Scope of the Special Issue:

The high performance of microelectronic devices stands as the cornerstone for the long- lasting and fault-free operation of intricate electrical circuits in their diverse applications. While significant strides have enhanced the performance and structure of integrated semiconductor devices in recent decades, persistent challenges continue which affect the robust operation of transistors and circuits. For example, modern MOS transistors suffer from imperfections at the atomic level, which evolve as electrically active defects and can induce a gradual drift in device and circuit performance over time. One of the most prominent issues in this context is the so-called bias temperature instability (BTI). This effect is typically linked to an alteration of the device threshold voltage. Furthermore, BTI-related effects are responsible for increased device-to-device variability when nodes are scaled, which emerges as a severe issue for circuit reliability. Nevertheless, despite dedicated efforts and model development, the intricate physical mechanisms underpinning BTI remain subject to contentious debate.

Beyond BTI, various other factors affect the resilience of microelectronic transistors, e.g., the hysteresis in voltage sweeps, stress-induced leakage currents, time-dependent dielectric breakdown, and radiation effects, just to mention a few. Next to transistors, the functionality of other circuit components - diodes, resistors, and the reliability of interconnects - proves indispensable for micro- and nanoelectronic applications.

The components horizon expands beyond conventional Si technology, delving into emerging material systems like SiC or GaN alongside the pioneering field of 2D transistors utilizing graphene, MoS2, and other cutting-edge materials. However, the characterization of these novel materials presents various challenges, demanding high-speed measurement techniques and ultra-low noise systems to explore trap-assisted tunnelling and other phenomena. It has to be noted that precise measurements are key to calibrating models to explain the device behaviour, but also to explore the origin of the reliability issues and support the improvement of certain technologies.

In the next step, the knowledge gained at the device level has to be propagated up to the circuit level. Most importantly, advanced circuit simulations rely on compact models which are vital to designing robust circuits.

While scaling trends pose severe challenges especially for analog integrated circuits, quantum effects, also resulting from incorporating new material systems, drive the progress in applications such as quantum sensing and the generation and detection of single photons.

For guaranteeing the reliability of modern analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits, especially in challenging environments such as space, verification and testing are crucial not only on the device level but also on the circuit level and even system level. Ever-decreasing feature sizes in integrated circuits result in increasing rates of radiation-induced single-event effects that affect more than one device at the same time.

This Special Issue will serve as a forum for experts from academia and industry to discuss the critical issues in the state-of-the-art Si and Si-related technologies (SiGe, SiC, etc.) as well as emerging 2D technologies. This Special Issue will collect the best papers contributing to the Austrochip 2024 in Vienna. The hot topics at the symposium are:

Micro- and Nanoelectronic Devices:

    Simulation of microelectronics devices and processes (TCAD)
    Device reliability characterization and analysis (Noise/RTN, BTI, SILC, TDDB)
    Robustness of power and wide bandgap devices and circuits (SiC, GaN, etc.)
    Emerging technologies and devices (SiGe, 2D materials, etc.)
    Reliability tests for monitoring and qualification (wafer-level, package-level, etc.)
    Device-to-circuit degradation

Integrated Circuits:

    Analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits
    Digital circuits, filters, DSPs, asynchronous designs
    FPGA design and reconfigurable hardware
    Design methodology, system-level design, giga scale circuits, network-on-chip
    Embedded systems and IoT, energy-efficient machine learning, low-power designs, RF systems, security aspects
    Verification and testing, signal integrity, compact device modelling, timing analysis, reliability simulation, EMC, ESD, radiation effects
    Quantum computing, sub-threshold circuits, sensors, organic and biomedical electronics
    Case studies and prototyping

Manuscript submission information:

Manuscripts have to be submitted through the online submission system of Microelectronic Engineering, following the guidelines indicated on the main website of the journal:

https://www.elsevier.com/journals/microelectronic-engineering/0167-9317/guide-for-authors

The authors should indicate clearly, both in the cover letter and through the online submission system, that they want their manuscript to be considered for the special issue titled “Advances in Micro- and Nanoelectronic Devices and Circuit Engineering.” (VSI: AMNDCE)

The submission period should start on October 1st, 2024, and end on January 31st, 2025. All manuscripts will be available online at the journal website and receive a DOI (i.e., they can be cited) as soon as they are accepted. After that, they will be included in a printed special issue that should be released in June/Juli 2025. The special issue will include approximately 10 manuscripts, and only novel manuscripts will be accepted. The special issue will include one editorial from the guest editors-in-chief, Univ. Prof. Dr. Michael Waltl, Dr. Florian Huemer, and Dr. Michael Hofbauer.

Keywords:

Device Reliability, Circuit Reliability, Radiation Effects, 2D Materials, SiC and GaN Power Devices