ECE BOARD EXAM REVIEWER IN

MICROELECTRONICS

By : ANALENE MONTESINES_NAGAYO
INTRODUCTION TO
MICROELECTRONICS
MICROELECTRONICS
area of technology associated with electronic systems
designed with extremely small parts or elements.
branch of electronic technology devoted to the design and
development of extremely small electronic devices that
consume very little electric power. [The Columbia Electronic
Encyclopaedia, 2007]
The technology of constructing circuits and devices in
extremely small packages by various techniques. Also known
as microminiaturization; microsystem electronics. [McGraw-
Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 2003]
branch of electronics concerned with microcircuits [Collins
Encyclopaedia, 2005]
INTRODUCTION TO
MICROELECTRONICS

MICROCIRCUIT
A small circuit which is considered as a single part
composed of elements on or within a single substrate.

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
Consist of elements inseparably associated and
formed on or within a single substrate.
Complete electronic circuit containing transistors,
diodes, resistors and capacitors processed on and
contained entirely within a single chip of silicon
INTRODUCTION TO
MICROELECTRONICS
TYPES OF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
MONOLITHIC IC – are those formed completely within
a semiconductor substrate. These IC are commonly
referred to as silicon chips.
FILM IC – either THIN or THICK FILM. Film
components are made of either conductive or non-
conductive material that is deposited in desired
patterns on a ceramic or glass substrate. Film can only
be used as passive circuit components, such as
resistors and capacitors. Transistors and diodes are
added to the substrate to complete the circuit.
HYBRID IC – combine two or more IC types or
combined on or more IC
INTRODUCTION TO
MICROELECTRONICS

MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
Complete circuits mounted on a substrate (IC)

MICROCIRCUIT MODULE
An assembly of microcircuits or a combination of
microcircuits and discrete conventional electronic
components that performs one or more distinct
functions.
INTRODUCTION TO
MICROELECTRONICS
MINIATURE EELECTRONICS
Card assemblies, printed circuit boards, printed wiring
boards and modules composed exclusively of discrete
electronic parts and components.

DISCRETE ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS

A separately packaged circuit element with its own
external connections
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
Vaccum tube Era

• Sir John Ambrose Fleming

(November 29, 1949 – April 18, 1945)
adapted the Edison Effect to develop
the vacuum tube diode (valve) in
1904. Vacuum tube diode was used to
rectify or detect radio signals.

• Dr. Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 –

June 30, 1961) invented the vacuum
tube triode (audion) in 1906.
Vacuum tube triode was used to
amplify electrical signal.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• ENIAC (Electronics Numerical Integrator
and Calculator) – first modern electronic
computer – was built by John W. Mauchly and
John Presper Eckert of University of
Pennsylvania.
• ENIAC contained 18,000 vacuum tubes and
over 500 miles of wires, weighed over 30 tons,
occupied 1800 square feet, performed only
about 100,000 operations per second and
failed about every 7 minutes.
• ENIAC was operational in 1945 and introduced
to the public in 1946. Many of ENIAC’s first
tasks were for military purposes
• Since ENIAC was initially not a stored program
machine, it had to be reprogrammed for each
task.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• John Von Nuemann, a Hungarian mathematician and a
consultant of ENIAC computer, proposed the stored
program computer architecture. This stored program
concept was incorporated in the EDVAC (Electronic
Discrete Variable Computer) machine which was
designed and built in 1945.

• 1946 – Von Nuemann and his colleagues designed the

IAS (Institute of Advanced Study) computer at the
Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies. The IAS
computer became the prototype of all subsequent
general purpose computer.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• 1947 – John W. Mauchly and John Presper Eckert formed
the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and introduced
UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer). Their company was
later absorbed by Sperry-Rand Corporation and became the
company’s UNIVAC Division. UNIVAC I was used by the U.S.
Bureau of Census. UNIVAC I was the first successful
commercial computer.

• Disadvantage of using vacuum tubes in digital computers were

as follows:
Vacuum tubes were bulky.
Vacuum tubes dissipated a lot of heat.
Vacuum tubes had excessive power consumption.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
Transistor Age

• In December 1947, John Bardeen

and Walter Brattain of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories invented
the first germanium point-contact
transistor, a solid-state
semiconductor device capable of
amplifying electrical signals.

• In January 1948, William Shockley

created the first junction transistor, a
solid-state device similar to what we
now call a junction field-effect
transistor.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• 1953 – The TX-0, an experimental
transistor-based computer was built
at the Lincoln Laboratory of MIT.

• 1956 – The first bipolar digital

logic gate, made of discrete
components was introduced by J.
Harris.

• 1957 – The Digital Electronic

Computer (DEC) was formed and it
delivered its first computer, the
PDP-1. DEC later on introduced the
concept of minicomputer.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• MOS Digital IC started to take-off

• Disadvantage of using transistors in digital computers

were as follows:
Transistors were discrete rather than integrated.
This meant that the entire manufacturing process of
placing transistors onto the circuit board was
expensive, cumbersome and error-prone.
Designing a more powerful computer using
transistor was becoming more difficult since the
number of transistor used were growing rapidly.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
Integrated Circuit Age
• In 1959, the digital electronic
industry once again progressed
with the invention of the
Integrated Circuit (IC) by Jack
Kilby of Texas Instruments and
Dr. Robert Noyce of Fairchild
Semiconductor. This technology
combines transistors, diodes,
resistors and capacitors on a
single semiconductor substrate,
thus, reducing the size of most
electronics circuits.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• The first truly successful IC logic family, TTL
(Transistor-Transistor Logic) family, was pioneered in
1962.

• 1964 – DEC introduced the PDP-8, the industry’s first

minicomputer. Minicomputers were essentially much
cheaper and smaller than mainframes.

• 1964 – IBM introduced the concept of the family of

computers through its SYSTEM/360 computer. This
means that each model within the family ran the same
programs but they have different memory size and
speed.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• The first CMOS IC were made by RCA in 1968.

• Bipolar digital logic lost the battle for supremacy over

MOS technology in the digital design because of its large
power consumption. The large power consumption per
gate set a limit on the number of gates that can be
reliably integrated on a single die or package.

• With the advancement of Integrated Circuit technology,

more and more transistor components were packed
inside an IC.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
IC LEVEL OF INTEGRATION
- This is a measure of complexity of IC design according to the
number of transistors/logic gates used in a single package.
SSI (Small Scale Integration) 1 to 100 transistor components
MSI (Medium Scale Integration) 100 to 1,000 transistor components
LSI (Large Scale Integration) 1,000 to 100,000 transistor components
VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) 100,000 to 1,000,000 transistor components
ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration) 1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 transistor
components

SSI (Small Scale Integration) Fewer then 10 gates

MSI (Medium Scale Integration) 10 to 100 gates
LSI (Large Scale Integration) 100 to 1,000 gates
VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) Over 1,000 gates
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
Microprocessor Age
• In 1971, one of the important developments in Integrated Circuit
happened when M. E. Hoff of Intel Corporation developed the
microprocessor, an Integrated Circuit containing all the
components of a computer’s central processing unit.
• The first microprocessor – 4004 was a
4-bit programmable controller.
with 4Kbytes maximum program size.
executed 45 different instructions.
constructed using P-channel MOSFET.
was consist 1,000 transistors.
can perform 50 KIPS (kilo instructions per second).
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• April 1972 - Intel released the 8008. 8008 was the
1st 8-bit microprocessor.
with 16KB addressable memory.
executed 48 different instructions.
with a clock speed of 200 KHz
was consist of 3,500 transistors using 10mm fabrication process.
was used in dumb terminals, general calculators, bottling
machines, data/character manipulation.
• 1973 – Intel introduced 8080 microprocessor. 8080 was the
first modern 8 bit microprocessor.
executed instruction 10 times faster than 8008.
with external clock generator and system controller.
TTL compatible.
was implemented using NMOS logic, which has the advantage of
higher speed than PMOS logic.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• April 1974 – Intel introduced 8080 microprocessor. 8080 was the
first modern 8 bit microprocessor.
executed instruction 10 times faster than 8008.
with a clock speed of 2 MHz
was consist of 6,000 transistors using 6mm fabrication process.
with 64KB addressable memory.
with external clock generator and system controller.
TTL compatible.
was implemented using NMOS logic, which has the advantage of
higher speed than PMOS logic.
was used as traffic light controller and used in Altair computer (first
PC).

• Months later, Motorola introduced the MC6800.

EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• March 1976 - Intel released a new 8-bit microprocessor – the
8085. 8085 was
slightly more advanced than the 8080.
with 8-bit data bus.
with addressing capacity of 64Kbytes.
executed software at a higher speed (769,230 instruction per
second).
was consist of 6,500 transistors using 3mm fabrication
process.
with internal clock generator, internal system controller,
higher clock frequency.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• June 1978 - Intel released the 8086, the 1st 16 bit
microprocessor.
• June 1979 – Intel introduced 8088. 8088 was the 8-bit data bus
version of 8086.
16-bit microprocessors.
performed 2.5 MIPS(million instructions per second).
with a clock speed of 5MHz – 10MHz.
with an addressing capacity of 1Mbytes.
was consist of 29,000 transistors using 3mm fabrication
process.
8086 has a 16-bit data bus while the 8088 has an 8-bit data
bus.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS

• 1981 – IBM Corporation started using 8088 Intel microprocessors

for their personal computers.

• February 1982 – Intel introduced 80286 microprocessor to

address more memory for large spreadsheets and database
applications. 80286 was a
16-bit microprocessor.
with 16-bit data bus.
with an addressing capacity of 16Mbytes.
with a speed of 250ns and perform 4 MIPS.
was consist of 134,000 transistors using 1.5mm fabrication
process.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• October 1985 - 80386 was released by Intel. 80386 was
the 1st 32-bit microprocessor.
was consist of 275,000 transistors using 1.5mm fabrication
process.
• April 1989 – Intel introduced 80486. 80486 was a
32-bit microprocessor.
with 32-bit data bus.
with an addressing capacity of 4Gbytes.
An improved version of 80386 microprocessor with 80387
arithmetic co-processor and an 8Kbyte cache memory
system into one integrated package.
was consist of 1.2 million transistors using 0.8mm fabrication
process.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• 1993 – Intel released PENTIUM.

Date Codename Transistors Fabrication (µm) Speed (MHz)

1993 P5 3,100,000 0.80 60/66
1994 P5 3,200,000 0.50 75/90/100/120
1995 P5 3,300,000 0.35 120/133
1996 P5 3,300,000 0.35 150/166/200

• 1995 – PENTIUM PRO was introduced by Intel.

Date Codename Transistors L2 Cache Fabrication (µm) Speed (MHz)

1995 P6 5,500,000 256/512KB 0.50 150
1996 P6 5,500,000 256/512KB 0.35 160/180/200
1997 P6 5,500,000 1MB 0.35 200
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• 1997 – PENTIUM II was introduced by Intel. Pentium II was a
• 64-bit microprocessor
• with a memory size of 64Gbytes + 32Kbyte L1 cache +
512Kbyte L2 cache
• It utilized 0.25 micron technology, which refers to the width of
transistors and circuit lines on the silicon, to increase core
frequencies and reduce power consumption.

• April 1998 - Intel launched its CELERON range of processors.

• Spring of 1999 – PENTIUM III, codenamed "Katmai", came to

market.
EVOLUTION OF
MICROELECTRONICS
• Early 2000 – Intel initially released Pentium IV with a speed of
1.3GHz.

Die L2 Fabrication Speed

Date Codename Transistors
Size Cache (µm) (GHz)

2000 Willamette 42,000,000 217mm2 256KB 0.18 1.4 to 2.0

2002 Northwood 55,000,000 146mm2 512KB 0.13 2.0 to 3.4

2004 Prescott 125,000,000 112mm2 1MB 0.09 to 3.6

PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
1. ______________ is the major characteristic of an IC. (ECE Board
Exam Nov. 1995)
a)Complication
b)Size
c)Power Consumption
d)Speed

2. Digital ICs are mostly __________. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1996)
a)Hybrid
b)Thick film
c)Thin film
d)Monolithic
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
3. A separately packaged circuit element with its own external
connections is called a _______ component. (ECE Board Exam
Nov. 1996)
a)Integrated
b)Discrete
c)Active
d)Passive

4. Which of the following ICs contains the most gate? (ECE Board
Exam Apr. 1998)
a)LSI
b)MSI
c)VLSI
d)SSI
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
5. Which of the following common electronic components is not
usually found in ordinary ICs? (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1998)
a)Inductor
b)Diodes
c)Resistors
d)Transistors

6. Card assemblies and modules composed excessively of discrete

electronic component. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 1999)
a)Microelectronics
b)Miniature Electronics
c)Microsoft
d)Microcircuit
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
7. An assembly of microcircuits or a combination of microcircuits
and discrete components packaged as replacement. (ECE Board
Exam Apr. 1999)
a)Electronic module
b)Microcircuit module
c)PCB
d)Minielectronics

8. A small circuit considered as a single part composed of elements

on or within a substrate. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 1999)
a)Macromodule
b)Microcircuit
c)Micromodule
d)Mini-electronics
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
9. It consists of elements inseparably associated and formed on or
within a single substrate. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1999)
a)Integrated Circuit
b)Microsoft
c)Module
d)Microcircuit

10. ICs whose components are passive elements either resistors or

capacitors. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1999)
a)Substrate
b)Film IC
c)Monolithic IC
d)Hybrid IC
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
11. In microelectronics, it reduces weight and eliminates point-to-
point wiring. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 2000)
a)Harness
b)Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
c)Chassis
d)Module

12. ICs that are combinations of monolithic and film of discrete

components or any combination thereof to allow flexibility in
circuits. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 2001)
a)Hybrid IC
b)Micro IC
c)Mixed IC
d)Combined IC
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
13. ______________is that area of technology associated with electronic
systems designed with extremely small parts or elements. (ECE Board
Exam Nov. 2001)
a)Microelectronics
b)Macroelectronics
c) Electronic Circuits
d)Mini-electronics

14. He built a computer in 1946 at the Institute of Advanced Studies,

Princeton, USA that uses binary numbers and stores information. (ECE
Board Exam Nov. 1999)
a)Clifford Berry
b)John Von Nuemann
c) Vannevar Bush
d)John Attannasoft
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
15. The first mass produced computer built by Eckert and Mauchly
Computer Company in Philadelphia, USA in 1950. (ECE Board
Exam Nov. 2000)
a)IBM-701
b)CRAY-1
c)UNIVAC
d)ENIAC
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
16. IC was invented at Texas instrument in 1958 by
a)J.A Fleming
b)Dr. Lee de Forest
c)Jack Kilby
d)George Philbrick

17. Which integrated circuit is having more than 1,000 transistor

components?
a)LSI
b)MSI
c)VLSI
d)SSI
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
18. An Intel microprocessor capable of executing only 48 different
instructions.
(a) 8080 (b) 8085 (c) 8008 (d) 4004

19. Who invented the world’s first microprocessor?

(a) Dr. Lee de Forest (c) J.A Fleming
(b) M.E. Hoff (d) J. Kilby

20. The advantage of transistor over vacuum tube triode is/are

(a) its small size (c) low power consumption
(b) less heat losses (d) all of the above
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
21. The first solid-state semiconductor device capable of amplifying
electrical signal was a ___.
(a) Germanium point contact transistor (c) Junction Transistor
(b) Operational Amplifier (d) Triode

22. Who invented the vacuum tube diode?

(a) Dr. Lee de Forest (c) J.A Fleming
(b) Thomas A. Edison (d) J. Kilby

23. Walter Schottky invented the __________ to overcome the

undesirable effect of inter-electrode capacitance existing in a
triode at high frequency operation.
(a) Diode (c) Tetrode
(b) Vacuum-tube Op-amp (d) Pentode
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
24. The person who inserted a third element called the grid between
the plate and filament of a Fleming valve in 1906 was
(a) Thomas Edison (c) J.A Fleming
(b) Albert Einstein (d) Dr. Lee De Forest
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
Semiconductor device fabrication
• the process used to create the integrated circuits (silicon
chips) that are present in everyday electrical and electronic
devices.
• a multiple-step sequence of photographic and chemical
processing steps during which electronic circuits are
gradually created on a wafer made of pure semiconductor
material.
• Silicon is the most commonly used semiconductor material
today, along with various compound semiconductors.
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
WAFER

• A typical wafer is made out of extremely pure silicon that is

grown into mono-crystalline cylindrical ingots up to 300 mm
(slightly less than 12 inches) in diameter using the
Czochralski process.

• These ingots are then sliced into wafers about 0.75 mm

thick and polished to obtain a very regular and flat surface.
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
• In semiconductor device fabrication, the various
processing steps fall into four general categories:
DEPOSITION
REMOVAL
PATTERNING
MODIFICATION OF ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
DEPOSITION

• process that grows, coats, or otherwise transfers a material

onto the wafer.
• Films of the various materials are applied on the wafer.
• Available technologies:
physical vapor deposition (PVD)
chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
electrochemical deposition (ECD)
molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)
atomic layer deposition (ALD)
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
REMOVAL/ETCHING PROCESS

• Selectively removing unwanted material from the surface

of the wafer.
• remove material from the wafer either in bulk or selectively
and consist primarily of etch processes, either
 wet etching
 dry etching
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
PATTERNING
• covers the series of processes that alter the existing shape
of the deposited materials and is generally referred to as
lithography.
• Lithography is the process for pattern definition by
applying thin uniform layer of viscous liquid (photo-resist)
on the wafer surface.
• The photo-resist is hardened by baking and than
selectively removed by projection of light through a reticle
containing mask information.
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
MODIFICATION OF ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
• Modification of electrical properties has historically consisted of
doping transistor sources and drains originally by diffusion
furnaces and later by ion implantation.
• Ion Implantation is most widely used technique to introduce
dopant impurities into semiconductor. The ionized particles are
accelerated through an electrical field and targeted at the
semiconductor wafer.
• These doping processes are followed by furnace anneal or in
advanced devices, by rapid thermal anneal (RTA) which serve to
activate the implanted dopants.
• Modification of electrical properties now also extends to reduction
of dielectric constant in low-k insulating materials via exposure to
ultraviolet light in UV processing (UVP).
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
DIE PREPARATION
• a step of semiconductor device fabrication during
which a wafer is prepared for IC packaging and IC
testing.
• The process of die preparation typically consists of 2
steps:
wafer mounting
wafer dicing
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
WAFER MOUNTING
• During this step, the wafer is mounted on a plastic
tape that is attached to a ring.
• Wafer mounting is performed before the wafer is cut
into separate dies.
• The adhesive film on which the wafer is mounted
ensures that the individual dies remain firmly in place
during 'dicing‘.
IC MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
DIE CUTTING/SINGULATION

• In the manufacturing of micro-electronic devices, die

cutting, dicing or singulation is a process of
reducing a wafer containing multiple identical
integrated circuits to individual dies each containing
one of those circuits.
• During this process, a wafer with up to thousands of
circuits is cut into rectangular pieces, each called a
die.
IC ASSEMBLY PROCESS
• In the integrated circuit industry it is called simply
packaging and sometimes semiconductor device
assembly, or simply assembly.
• Enable an IC to be electrically interconnected to the
package, and to allow that IC to be handled, tested
and “burnt-in”.
• Primary functions of IC assembly:
(1) To provide signal and power distribution of the
packaged IC to the system.
(2) To provide mechanical support to fragile IC
(3) To provide environmental protection of the IC
IC ASSEMBLY PROCESS

• Chip-to-package accomplished using three primary

interconnection technologies:
WIREBONDING
TAPE AUTOMATED BONDING (TAB)
 FLIP CHIP
IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY:
WIREBONDING

• Wire bonding is a method of making interconnections

between an IC and other electronics as part of
semiconductor device fabrication.
• The wire is generally made up of one of the following:
–Gold
–Aluminum
–Copper
• Wire diameters start at 15µm and can be up to several
hundred micrometers for high-powered applications.
• There are two main classes of wire bonding:
–Ball bonding
–Wedge bonding
IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY:
WIREBONDING
• Ball bonding usually is restricted to gold and copper
wire and usually requires heat.

• Wedge bonding can use either gold or aluminum wire,

with only the gold wire requiring heat.

• In either type of wire bonding, the wire is attached at

both ends using some combination of heat, pressure,
and ultrasonic energy to make a weld.

• Wire bonding is generally considered the most cost-

effective and flexible interconnect technology, and is
used to assemble the vast majority of semiconductor
packages.
IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY:
TAPE AUTOMATED BONDING
• Tape Automated Bonding is an interconnect technology
between the substrate and the IC, using a prefabricated
carrier with copper leads adapted to the IC pads instead
of single wires.
• Today TAB is well introduced in Japan and Taiwan and it
features many benefits in applications like LCD drivers, high
speed circuits, high pin count circuits or very low profile
designs.
• Has better electrical performance than wirebonding
technology.
• Microprocessors and ASICs benefit from TAB in the fields
where high frequencies, high pin counts or high power
dissipation are concerned.
IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY:
TAPE AUTOMATED BONDING
• TAB interconnections have improved electrical performance.
• Short circuit lead lengths between the chip and substrate reducing the
impedance and signal delays.
• On the other side, wirebond have long wire loops between the chip and
package lead frame, increasing line impedance and signal delays.

parameter wirebond TAB

Resistance 0.38mΩ 0.31mΩ

Inductance 10nH 6.7nH

Capacitance 0.21pF 0.11pF

IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY:
FLIP CHIP

• Advanced form of SMT, in which

bare semiconductor chips are
turned upside down and bonded
directly to PCB.
• Connection of an integrated circuit
chip to a carrier or substrate with
the active face of the chip facing
toward the substrate.
• Initially applied to peripheral
contacts, but quickly progressed
to area arrays which allow for high
I/O counts at larger pitches.
IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY:
FLIP CHIP

• Flip chip provide shortest chip-to-

package connections
• Minimal resistance
• Minimal capacitance
• Minimal inductance
• Flip chips on ceramic have high
reliability
IC ASSEMBLY TECHNOLOGY

• Currently wirebonds is the most used technology

• Currently the flip chip process doesn’t have the

infrastructure to be mass produced

• Flip chip will have the best electrical characteristics

IC ASSEMBLY PROCESS
• Plastic packaging used worldwide
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
25. The reason for thin layer of varnish over the copper foil pattern is
to prevent ________. (ECE Board Exam Mar. 1996)
(a) oxidizing
(b) flux
(c) corrosion
(d) dioxide

26. _________is a thin polished slice of a semiconductor crystal on

which IC can be fabricated often in duplicate, for cutting into
individual die. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1997)
(a) Silicon
(b) Indium
(c) Gallium
(d) Wafer
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
27. What is the commonly used IC package for digital ICs? (ECE
Board Exam Apr. 1999)
(a) Flat pack
(b) Dip ceramic
(c) Dip plastic
(d) Plastic IC

28. A device used to deposit materials on a substrate in designed

patterns. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 1999)
(a) Thin film
(b) Mask
(c) Plate
(d) Wafer
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
29. IC production method to prevent unwanted interaction between
elements within a chip. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1999)
(a) Evaporation
(b) Cathode Splittering
(c) Isolation
(d) Diffusion

30. Method used in producing thick film components. (ECE Board

Exam Nov. 1999)
(a) Diffusion
(b) Epitaxial
(c) Screening
(d) Evaporation
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
31. A device for artificially growing cylindrical crystals for producing
semiconductor substrate. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 1999)
(a) Crystal furnace
(b) Blast furnace
(c) Substrate furnace
(d) Crystal Furnace

32. In this method of monolithic IC production, elements do not

penetrate the substrate. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 2000 and Nov.
2000)
(a) Diffusion
(b) Evaporation
(c) Epitaxial
(d) Cathode Splittering
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
33. A method used to deposit thin film components on a single
substrate in a highly evacuated chamber. (ECE Board Exam Apr.
2000)
(a) Cathode Splittering
(b) Epitaxial
(c) Vacuum Evaporation
(d) Diffusion

34. A method of increasing the number of discrete components in a

given space. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 2000)
(a) Corywood module
(b) Stocking
(c) Equipage
(d) Stock filing
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
35. Semiconductor chip with electrodes (leads) extended beyond the
wafer. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 2000)
a)Dice
b)Flip Chip
c)Beam-lead chip
d)DIP

36. Fine wires connection the bonding pad of the chip to the external
lead of the package. (ECE Board Exam Apr. 2000)
(a) Harness
(b) Cables
(c) Bonding wires
(d) Leads
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
37. Refers to a design of a system taking into account environment
and electronic characteristics, access and maintainability. (ECE
Board Exam Nov. 2001)
(a) System handling
(b) System packaging
(c) Packaging
(d) Packaging levels

38. Chemical process off removing unwanted materials in producing

printed circuit boards. (ECE Board Exam Nov. 2001)
(a) Shedding
(b) Ionizing
(c) Photo etching
(d) Shielding
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
39. What process is used to produce IC semiconductor elements?
(a) Alloy junction
(b) Mesa diffusion
(c) Grown diffusion
(d) Planar diffusion

40. What is the most common method used for the growth of single
crystals for IC fabrication?
(a) Epitaxial growth
(b) Czochralsky pulling technique
(c) film deposition
(d) Photolitography
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
41. The package suffix code for plastic dual-in-line for surface
mounting on PC Board?
(a) D
(b) J
(c) N
(d) P

42. The package suffix code for ceramic dual-in-line?

(a) D
(b) J
(c) N
(d) P
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
43. The package suffix code for plastic dual-in-line for insertion into
sockets?
(a) N
(b) P
(c) J
(d) Both a and b

44. What is the principal method used in the fabrication of

semiconductor devices for hybrid and monolithic ICs?
(a) Epitaxial growth
(b) Photolitography method
(c) Isolation diffusion
(d) planar technology
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
45. When higher power ICs are needed, we can use
(a) monolithic ICs
(b) Thin Film ICs
(c) Thick Film ICs
(d) Both b and c

46. A technique where ions are accelerated to a high energy and

speed to be injected into a semiconductor.
(a) Diffusion
(b) Chemical Vapor Deposition
(c) Ion Implantation
(d) Ion Beam Etching
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
47. It is the transferring of pattern from mask or reticle to a wafer by
photographic process.
(a) Lithography
(b)Etching
(c) Photolitography
(d) Masking
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• In the 1960s, Gordon Moore, then with Fairchild Corporation and
later founder of Intel, predicted that the number of transistors that
can be integrated on a single die would grow exponentially with
time. This prediction, later called Moore’s Law, was proven to be
true especially in microprocessor.
• Microprocessors have grown in performance and complexity at a
steady and predictable state.
• As can be observed, transistors on microprocessors double
approximately every 2 years.
• As a result, memory density has increased by more than a
thousand fold since 1970.
• Clock frequency of microprocessors double every two years and
have reached into the GHz range.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS

Number of Transistor versus time for memory and microprocessors

FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
With all the design challenges that industry and academe are
encountering, there is a need for more efficient design method
and exploitation of different levels of abstraction are done.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• System Level – System specifications and requirements are
defined. The product is defined in both general and specific terms
that provide design targets such as functions, speed, size, etc. for
the entire project.

• Module Level / System Design and Verification Level – VHDL

and Verilog allow abstract, high-level modeling of the system’s
operation. The abstract model contains information on the
behavior of each module and interaction among modules in the
system.

• Gate Level – Logic design and verification are done. Logic gates
needed to build each module are specified.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• Circuit Level – CMOS design and verification are done.
Transistors are used as switches and Boolean variables are
treated as varying voltage signals.

• Physical Design Level – The circuit is built on tiny area on the

silicon using complex mapping scheme that translated transistors
and wires into extremely fine patterns of metals and other
materials.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• In order to evaluate the performance of digital circuits,
several design metrics must be considered. These include
measuring the following at different abstraction levels:
Cost
Reliability
Scalability
Speed (delay, operating frequency)
Power dissipation/Energy Consumption
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
COST

There are two cost factors involved in producing an IC:

• Recurrent costs are directly attributable to the product. It

includes the silicon processing, packaging, and testing. It is
therefore proportional to the fabrication volume and chip
area.
• Non-recurrent engineering (NRE) costs are one-time
cost factors. It includes design time and effort for mask
generation.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• To maximize profits, the recurrent and, more importantly,
the non-recurrent engineering cost, must be minimized.
• A significant way to achieve this is to increase yield by
increasing the diameter of the wafer and minimizing the
feature size of the device.
• The size of wafer has been increasing over the years,
yielding more dies per fabrication run.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• Increasing the Yield and minimizing the size of the device
minimizes fabrication cost since more dies are produced
per wafer, and the use of the ultra-expensive mask is
maximized.
• The die cost depends on the number of good dies on the
wafer, and the percentage of those that are functional.

cost of wafer
die cost 
dies per wafer x die yield
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
RELIABILITY

• Noise Margin is a measure

of the sensitivity of a gate
to noise which quantize the
size of the logic “0” and “1”.

• Noise Immunity expresses

the ability of the system to
process and transmit
information correctly in the
presence of noise.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• Fan-out denotes the number of load gates N that are
connected to the output of the driving gate.

• Increasing the fan-out of a gate can affect its logic output

levels. When fan-out is large, the added load can
deteriorate the dynamic performance of the driving gate.

• Fan-in is defined as the number of inputs to the gate.

• Gates with large fan-in tend to be more complex, which

often result in inferior static and dynamic properties.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
SPEED

• In digital circuit design, performance is most often

expressed by the duration of clock period (clock cycle
time), or its rate (clock frequency).

• Propagation Delay, tp, of a gate defines how quickly it

responds to a change at its input/inputs. It expresses the
delay experienced by a signal when passing through a
gate.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
POWER DISSIPATION AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION

• Power consumption influence a great number of critical

design decisions, such as the power supply capacity, the
battery lifetime, supply line sizing, packaging and cooling
requirements.
• Power consumption of a design determines how much
energy is consumed per operation, and how much heat
the circuit dissipates.
• Therefore, power consumption (as dictated by the chip
package and heat removal system) establishes the
number of circuits that can be integrated onto a single
chip, and how fast they are allowed to switch.
FUTURE OF IC DESIGN AND
IC DESIGN METRICS
• PDP denotes the energy
consumed by the gate
per switching event.

• EDP measure the quality

metric of the gate. An
ideal gate must be fast
and consumes less
power.
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
48. When logic circuit rejects unwanted signal, this is termed as
____________ (ECE Board Exam Mar. 1996)
(a) Logic levels
(b) Noise Margin
(c) Power Consumption
(d) Propagation Delay

49. Speed of a logic circuit is normally expressed as ____________.

(ECE Board Exam Mar. 1996)
(a) Logic levels
(b)Speed immunity
(c) Propagation Delay
(d) Power Consumption
PAST BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
50. What is the process of designing more than 100 gates on a
single chip? (ECE Board Exam Apr. 1998)
(a) LSI
(b) SSI
(c) MSI
(d) VLSI

51. An interval required to address and read out memory word.

(ECE Board Exam Mar. 1996)
(a) Propagation Delay
(b) Pulse Duration
(c) Setting time
(d) Access time
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
52. The number of logic gates of the same family that can be
connected to the input of a particular gate without degrading the
input performance.
(a) Fan-in
(b) Fan-out
(c) Input drive
(d) Input Noise immunity

53. Refers to the number of logic gate of the same family that can be
driven by a single output of a particular logic gate.
(a) output drive
(b) output noise margin
(c) fan-in
(d) fan-out
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
54. The abstraction level of top-down approach in IC design where
CMOS design and verification are done.
(a) Circuit Level
(b) Gate Level
(c) Physical Level
(d) Module level

55. It is the law that the number of transistors that can be integrated
on a single die would grow exponentially with time.
(a) Gordon’s Law
(b) Kirchoff’s Law
(c) Moore’s Law
(d) Ohm’s Law
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
56. The cost factor in IC design which is proportional to the
fabrication volume and chip area.
(a) Fabrication Capital cost
(b) Non-recurrent engineering (NRE) costs
(c) Recurrent costs
(d) Die Cost
57. A measure of the sensitivity of a gate to noise which quantize
the size of the logic “0” and “1”.
(a) Fan-in
(b) Fan-out
(c) Noise Margin
(d) Noise immunity
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
58. It denotes the energy consumed by the gate per switching event
(a) Power Delay Product
(b) Power dissipation
(c) Energy delay product
(d) Energy consumption

59. It is the number of good die divided by the number of die tested.
(a) Die cost
(b) Die Yield
(c) Die defect
(d) Die sort
POSSIBLE BOARD EXAM
QUESTIONS
60. Typical propagation delay range for modern digital integrated
circuits is
(a) 1 to 100 ms
(b) 1 to 100 us
(c) 1 to 100 ns
(d) 1 to 100 ps
REFERENCES
• [1] J. Rabaey, A. Chandrakasan and B. Nikolic, Digital Integrated Circuits – A
Design Perspective, Prentice Hall, 2002
• [2] J. Uyemura, Introduction to VLSI Circuits and Systems, John Wiley & Sons,
2002
• [3] S. Kang and Y. Leblebici, CMOS Digital Integrated Circuits, 3rd. Ed., McGraw-
Hill, 2002
• [4] B. Brey, The Intel Microprocessors – Architecture, Programming and
Interfacing, 6th Edition, Prentice Hall Int’l., N.J., 2003
• [5] Rafiquzzaman, M., Fundamentals of Digital Logic and Microcomputer Design,
RAFI Systems, Inc., C.A., U.S.A, 2003
• [6] Yu, R. and Santos, A., Electronics Engineering – Master Book, EDGE ECE
reviewer, 2007
• [6] www.pctechguide.com
• [7] http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/processors/
• [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication
 THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

Microelectronics reviewer by :
ANALENE MONTESINES_NAGAYO