SEMI, the global microelectronics industry association, has chosen William Wahby to present his award-winning SRC TECHCON research paper at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium, to be held January 8-11, 2017 in Half Moon Bay, California. The symposium is a well-respected global semiconductor conference where leading executives, technologists, market and financial analysts, and economists examine technology and business developments influencing the future of the industry. 

Wahby’s research paper was one of two chosen from SRC TECHCON to be recognized at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium. He is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), where he works in the Integrated 3D Systems Group and is advised by ECE Professor Muhannad Bakir.

Wahby’s paper, which won in the SRC TECHCON packaging and 3D IC integration track, is entitled "Impact of alternate wiring materials on sequential monolithic 3DICs." This work focuses on quantifying the impact of the use of tungsten (or other high-resistivity metals or alloys) as an on-chip wiring material in monolithic 3D ICs. Copper is unsuitable for use as an on-chip interconnect in serially-fabricated monolithic 3D ICs for any logic tier below the topmost, as the fabrication of each logic tier exposes all lower tiers to temperatures far in excess of what copper interconnects can withstand. Through extensive modeling of 2D and 3D wiring networks, Wahby was able to show that the use of high-resistivity metals in monolithic 3D ICs typically increases the number of metal levels required for signal routing on each logic tier, which impacts the fabrication cost and performance of these systems.