Tibor Grasser
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn., Head of Institute
Publications

Biography

Tibor Grasser is a professor of microelectronics reliability and an IEEE Fellow. He has been the head of the Institute for Microelectronics since 2016. He has edited various books, e.g. on the bias temperature instability, hot carrier degradation, and noise (all Springer), is a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE EDS, is a recipient of the Best and Outstanding Paper Awards at IRPS (2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014), IPFA (2013 and 2014), ESREF (2008) and the IEEE EDS Paul Rappaport Award (2011). He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices following his assignment as Associate Editor for Microelectronics Reliability (Elsevier) and has been involved in various outstanding conferences such as IEDM (General Chair 2021), IRPS, SISPAD, ESSDERC, and IIRW. Prof. Grasser's current research interests include theoretical modeling of performance aspects of 2D and 3D devices (charge trapping, reliability), starting from the ab initio level over more efficient quantum-mechanical descriptions up to TCAD modeling. The models developed in his group have been made available in the most important commercial TCAD environments.

Preface

Welcome to the 35th annual research review of the Institute for Microelectronics! The number of our permanent staff members, financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, has increased from last year and consist of fifteen full-time employees: seven professors, four senior scientists, one administrative manager, and three full-time technical assistants. In addition, four doctoral researchers and one federally funded post-doctoral researcher are working on exciting and relevant research problems. A further eighteen scientists, eight post-doctoral researchers, and one part-time assistant are presently funded through projects supported by our industrial partners, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft (CDG), and the European Commission (EU).

Over the last year, one project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (“Defect-Based Modeling of SiC Devices”), two Austrian Research Promotion Agency projects (“Innovative, civil UAV Control Platform ReLoaded” and “Process-Aware Structure Emulation for Device-Technology Co-Optimization”), and one Christian Doppler Laboratory, namely the “CD Laboratory for High Performance TCAD” have been successfully completed. One FFG project, one EU H2020 project, two CDG projects on “Nonvolatile Magnetoresistive Memory and Logic” and “Single-Defect Spectroscopy in Semiconductor Devices”, as well as projects funded by the FWF (“General Nano-Electromagnetic Quantum Phase Space Model” and “Numerical Constraints for the Wigner and the Sigma Equation”) are proceeding according to plan.

We are very pleased that our industrial partners have continued and extended their support for projects dealing with a wide range of topics, such as multidisciplinary characterization and modeling for innovative process and product integration of power semiconductors, reliability of oxides in SiC MOSFETs, device degradation and recovery for circuit simulation, defect spectroscopy of integrated photo diodes, highly efficient characterization of transistor arrays, quantum mechanical calculation of electronic parameters, reliability at cryogenic temperatures, modeling the reliability and microstructure of metallic microheaters, fundamental fluctuations in spintronics, noise in semiconductor devices, device degradation and recovery for circuit simulation, as well as performance enhancement of integrated photo diodes.

It is a great pleasure for us to report that two directly funded projects, “2D Semiconductors Obtained by Surface Rubbing on Various Insulator Substrates for Next-Generation Electronics” and “Insulators for 2D Nanoelectronics”, and two FWF projects, “Adsorbate-Dependent Conductivity of MoS2 FETs” and “Semiconductor/Fluoride Structures on Si for 2D Electronics”, one “CD Laboratory for Multi-Scale Process Modeling of Semiconductor Devices and Sensors”, and one ERC Advanced Grant Project “Fluorides for 2D Next-Generation Nanoelectronics” have commenced during the past year.

We are exceptionally proud of the consistently high academic and scientific output produced by our institute, evidenced both by our large number of long-term projects and our high rate of publications — especially regarding our contributions to, and participation in, leading international conferences. We are aware, however, that this success would not be possible without the continued support of our collaborators from academia and industry. As such, we would like to take this opportunity to explicitly convey our gratitude for their trust in our scientific work. In this regard, we are entering into the next year of our institute, as ever, with high expectations.