Driven by the relentless growth in the depth and breadth of semiconductor application domains, the processes and material systems underpinning next-generation logic, memory, and interconnect technologies are becoming increasingly complex and interconnected. This growing complexity amplifies the need for innovative materials, processes, and integration solutions that can enable future semiconductor manufacturing. Imec addresses this challenge by accelerating technology development through deep expertise and a strong focus on fundamental understanding. Only by comprehensively understanding the underlying physical and chemical mechanisms of a process can development move beyond incremental optimization and toward true innovation.

In this presentation, I will illustrate this philosophy through a few case studies. Strain engineering, for example, offers significant potential to sustain future device performance scaling, but requires advanced metrology and in-depth analysis to understand and control strain evolution throughout the fabrication flow. A second example concerns the atomic-scale interface control required in increasingly complex logic and memory stacks. I will discuss several approaches that provide insight into these phenomena, which ultimately govern device performance, reliability, and yield in next-generation semiconductor technologies.