ICTEAM/ELEN team of Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) is a multidisciplinary team, involving device physicists, technologists and experimentalists, as well as analog, RF and digital circuit designers. It runs two technological platforms: Winfab cleanroom and WELCOME characterization platform. It has been involved in the investigation of advanced electronics’ materials and devices since the 90s, from sub-micron SOI MOSFETs, towards ultra-thin films as FinFET, NWs and UTBB FDSOI, following the MOSFET scaling down to 14 nm and below presently. A large expertise has been developed on novel materials and devices processing on one side and advanced characterization as well as simulations and modeling on another side. Particular attention has always been paid to the development of new characterization techniques, investigation of static and dynamic behaviors, non-stationary effects (e.g. self-heating and noise), impact of harsh environment, and particularly temperature (from cryogenic up to hundreds °C) on device behavior. The wide characterization expertise of the team lies on vast capabilities available through the WELCOME characterization platform, unique in Wallonia-Brussels Region and recognized at international level, allowing electrical on-board and on-wafer measurements in wide temperature (from few mK to 600 K) and frequency (from DC to >180 GHz) ranges, coupled to a low-frequency noise system, vector-network analyzers, etc. The developed expertise as well as available infrastructure will be highly beneficial for Arctic project.
Within the project, UCLouvain will take care of self-heating characterization, which is known as an important bottleneck of design, and can be an obstacle especially at cryogenic temperatures. The work will be done in collaboration with ST and on devices from 28 FDSOI technology. The wide-frequency band characterization will be employed for extraction of self-heating features down to 4 K. Complimentary self-heating characterization techniques, various test-structures and possible routes for optimization will be analyzed. Moreover, UCLouvain will investigate the noise behavior under the same temperature conditions. Additionally, original techniques to control the noise figures by application of a local in-situ heating at a transistor level will be studied.
UCLouvain will participate in the development of cryo PDK. In this task, UCLouvain will be responsible for thermo-electrical cross-coupling characterization and self-heating parameters extraction on FDSOI 22FDX devices from Global Foundries. UCLouvain will provide experimental data for the PDK developing partners.
On top of this technical work, UCLouvain will participate in dissemination and communication actions.
More information on http://www.uclouvain.be/en/icteam.
