About Interconnect Research at IFC

Overview

Dr. Paul Kohl, Center Director

The Interconnect Focus Center (IFC) conducts research to discover and invent new electrical, optical and thermal interconnect solutions that will enable the U.S. semiconductor industry to transcend known limits on connectivity in electronic systems that would otherwise decelerate or halt the historical rate of progress of semiconductor technology and devices. The IFC addresses connectivity issues from transistors-to-systems, and from local, on-chip wiring to wireless communications and sensing. These research efforts include the introduction of new fundamental approaches, concepts, materials and processes, novel interconnect structures and signaling modes, original circuit configurations and models as well as innovative system architectures.

The IFC was founded in 1998 to research all aspects of the wiring that connect the millions of transistors on a microchip, from process to system-level architecture. Today and in the future, the microelectronics and nanotechnology industries will lead the evolution of technology in industries from automotive to medical, and from computing to aviation. The IFC strives to stay atop all advances in these fields and play a major role in driving this technology into the future. To that end, the IFC's research themes have evolved to accommodate this goal.

Research Focus

It is our goal to strengthen our linkage and contribution to system-level challenges by more closely coupling the research proposed here to circuits and system. This closer relationship will bring more system-level goals into the Connectivity Center, and allow us to more readily translate the impact of connectivity advances to the system level.

Research in Interconnect addresses the following five themes:

• Electrical Connectivity
• Optical Connectivity
• Energy: Delivery and Its Ramifications
• Wireless Connectivity
• Connectivity Scenarios, Modeling, and Assessment