CMOS as a research platform

In order to facilitate research on a variety of new materials, device structures, and microelectromechanical systems, the Microelectronics Research Center of Georgia Tech has established silicon CMOS processing baselines. Together with a rigorous equipment and process training procedure, a research collaboration and service protocol, and a group of dedicated people, a research platform has been formed based on the silicon CMOS processing baselines. The platform provides a rigorous equipment and process training program for new cleanroom users, a quarterly CMOS processing run to meet the need of CMOS related research projects, and process module services as needed for general research communities. The platform also collaborates with a variety of groups to perform cutting-edge research such as novel CMOS devices, novel structures, electronics for MEMS, chemical sensor integrated optoelectronics, DNA chip array, new interconnection schemes, and sea of leads chip input/output interconnects. This paper describes the five basic components and their integration into the platform