2003 IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialists Conference (SISC)

The 2003 IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialists Conference (SISC) will be held December 4-6, 2003 at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, VA immediately prior to the IEDM. The Key Bridge Marriott overlooks the Nation's Capital and Georgetown from the Virginia side of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and is only minutes from Washington, D.C. The SISC provides a unique forum for device engineers, solid-state physicists, and materials scientists to discuss issues of common interest. Principal topics for discussion at SISC are semiconductor/insulator interfaces; the physics of insulating thin films, and the interaction among materials science, device physics, and state-of-the-art technology.
This year will be the thirty-fourth meeting of SISC. The first meeting was held in 1965 and attendance was by invitation. The conference, now public, alternates between the east and west coasts, and meets just before the IEDM. An important goal of the conference is to provide an environment that encourages interplay between scientific and technological issues. Invited and contributed talks, as well as a lively poster session, are presented in an informal setting designed to encourage discussion, and conference participants enjoy numerous opportunities for social gatherings with renown scientists and engineers.
The conference emphasis is on silicon-based devices, including the SiC and SiGe systems, and topics evolve with the state-of-the-art. The program includes talks from all areas of MOS science and technology, including but not limited to the following:

  • alternative and high-k gate dielectric materials,
  • physics of thin dielectrics and their interfaces,
  • gate-dielectric conduction and breakdown,
  • silicon carbide and its interfaces,
  • physical and electrical characterization of Si/SiO2 interfaces,
  • micro-roughness measurement, modeling, and device-related effects,
  • hot carrier, plasma damage and radiation effects,
  • nitrogen-containing oxides and stacked interfaces,
  • surface cleaning technology and effects on dielectrics and interfaces,
  • novel oxidation, deposition, and etching techniques, and
  • theory of oxide and interface defects

Invited and contributed talks are complemented by informal events designed to encourage lively discussion and debate. Invited speakers this year include:

Dr. Suvi Haukka, ASM Microchemistry Ltd., Finland
- "Novel Dielectric and Electrode Materials by Atomic Layer Deposition"
Prof. Peter E. Bloechl, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany
- "First-principles calculations of the formation of the SrTiO3/Si interfaces"
Dr. H.-S. Philip Wong, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
- "Gate Dielectric Considerations for Non-Classical FETs"
Prof. Alex Grishin, KTH, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
- "Integration of novel functional oxides with Si"
Dr. Satoshi Yamasaki, Advanced Semiconductor Research Center (AIST), Japan
- "Creation mechanism of interface defects at the early stage of Si oxidation processes studied by UHV-ESR"
Jamie Schaeffer, Motorola, USA
- "Dual Metal Gate Electrodes on Hi-K Gate Dielectrics"

Generous hospitality allows attendants to focus on enjoying the conference. Hors d'oeuvres, wine, and cheese encourage interaction among poster authors and other conference participants at Thursday's poster session. Friday afternoon has no scheduled talks, to allow time to meet informally, relax, or visit local Washington D.C. attractions. On Friday evening the conference hosts a banquet and awards ceremony, complete with the now-famous (and always riotous) limerick contest. The limericks never fail to give the conference presentations, people and events an entirely new perspective!
This year's SISC will continue the tradition of presenting an award memorializing Prof. E. H. Nicollian. The award will be given for the best student presentation. Ed Nicollian was a pioneer in the exploration of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) systems. His contributions were important to establishing SISC in its early years, and he served as the Technical Chair in 1982. With John Brews, he wrote the definitive book MOS Physics and Technology.
For registration information and general inquiries about SISC, please refer to the web-site: www.ieeesisc.com or contact the Arrangements Chair, Eric Vogel, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Dr., MS 8123, Gaithersburg, MD 20899. Phone: (301) 975-4723, Fax: (301) 975-5668, E-mail: eric.vogel@nist.gov

Eric Vogel
Arrangements Chair
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD, USA