International College of Semiconductor Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, addresses three major challenges the semiconductor industry is facing: More Moore, Moore’s Law More than Moore, and beyond CMOS’s next-generation components (Beyond CMOS). The research areas are as follows: (1) research on solid-state electronic components and materials, (2) exploring the limits of Moore’s Law and related research, (3) developing the next-generation solid-state components and semiconductor materials analysis, (4) research in wafer design and micro-system integration field, (5) exploring nano-circuit design technology, and (6) develop high-performance system on chip/system in package (SoC/SiP) integration technology.
Semiconductor materials and Solid- State electronic components
Solid-state electronic components are the most advanced technology in all semiconductor industries. Its continuous breakthrough and innovation is undoubtedly the driving force of the entire electronics industry. The domestic semiconductor industry has a large output value. Not only is it the leading domestic industry but also an international leader. To ensure future world-class competitiveness, the most fundamental task is the cultivation nurturing of outstanding talents. The semiconductor process involves quite a few steps, such as wafer oxide growth, lithography, etching, cleaning, impurity diffusion, ion implantation, and thin film deposition. The process required to complete the integrated circuit requires more than 300 steps. Following the Moore’s Law, which has dominated the development of the huge semiconductor industry for more than 40 years, the most advanced component technology has been pushed to below 10 nm. It is a nanotechnology that is compromising, but many fundamental physical limitations, quantum effects, interface characteristics, process variability, etc. making the future component development limited and performance improvement becomes extremely challenging. The goal of education in this field is to develop future prospective solid-state electronic component engineers and through a variety of professional courses, students will integrate talents with good professional knowledge in component design, reliability analysis, quantum physics, material science and nano-process technology. Through a strong research group, students are guided to invest in the field of solid-state electronic components, training in rigorous research capabilities and innovative thinking.
Semiconductor wafer design and microsystem integration
In response to applications such as 5G mobile communications, Internet of Things(IoT), smart robots, artificial intelligence(AI) computing and deep learning technologies, and biomedical electronics, semiconductor system applications are gradually moving toward System on Chip integration (SoC) and heterogeneous system integration packaging (SiP). Taking artificial intelligence(AI) computing as an example, the logic components and memory components are integrated into a faster, special hardware computing unit, which supports the high-performance real-time operations required by artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning algorithms, and also develop extremely power-saving chip modules. Laying a good foundation for building the Internet of Things (IoT) and the world of automation. Speaking of biomedical wafers, it includes system design, integration of biological and electronic component systems, wafer fabrication, development of key technologies, and development of integrated design platforms. In the future, the demand for light, small, power-saving and high-performance computing will only continue to expand. In the face of such industry trends, semiconductor technology must run faster in integration and application, in order to push us to a more convenient and sustainable future. The research group focuses on “component level circuit design research” and “system level circuit architecture development”. The circuit design of the component level is based on the circuit technology to fully utilize the characteristics of the electronic components to achieve a high-performance integrated circuit; the system-level circuit architecture design will target the system application and process packaging technology, develop key circuits, and implement system performance analysis to achieve system wafer and heterogeneous system integration. The educational goal in this field is to cultivate talents who are familiar with different fields, and to develop a reliable and efficient research and development platform for innovation in heterogeneous integration.