TRR404 Active-3D

This TRR will utilize the volume on top of the chip area by integrating active devices into the Back-End of Line (BEOL) enabling logic and memory functionality as well as active interconnects. To this end, novel devices based on new and unconventional materials fabricated with low-thermal budget tech-niques will be developed and integrated into novel circuits and systems promising unprecedented im-provements regarding the key performance indicators power, performance and area. Our materi-als/technology/circuit co-design approach provides an almost unlimited number of possibilities to ar-range circuit functionalities across the BEOL volume allowing to exploit the fact that “there’s plenty of room on top” of the chip to its full extend. The realization of such an active BEOL requires the integration and tailoring of a large set of different materials, it needs highly sophisticated manufacturing technologies, an in-depth understanding of the interaction between materials, their processing and resulting device characteristics as well as a com-pletely fresh way of looking at circuit and system design. To accomplish this, the TRR teams up inter-nationally renowned experts from Dresden and Aachen, starting from the quantum chemical material science aspects to novel electronic devices to discovering new circuit topologies and electronic sys-tems. In addition, both sites bring along a top notch micro- and nanofabrication infrastructure. With the TRR “Next Generation Electronics with Active Devices in Three Dimensions” (Active-3D), Germany and, therefore, also Europe will be strengthened at the basic research level of microelectronics.