The effects of interconnect length on the reliability of dual-damascene Cu metallization have been investigated. As in Al-based interconnects, the lifetimes of Cu lines increase with decreasing length. However, unlike Al-based interconnects, no critical length exists, below which all Cu lines are ‘immortal’. Furthermore, we found multi-modal failure statistics for long lines, suggesting multiple failure mechanisms. Some long Cu interconnect segments have very large lifetimes, whereas in Al segments, lifetimes decrease continuously with increasing line length. It is postulated that the large lifetimes observed in long Cu lines result from liner rupture at the bottom of the vias, which allows continuous flow of Cu between the two bond pads. As a consequence, the average lifetimes of short lines and long lines can be higher than those of lines with intermediate lengths. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The IEEE 802.3aq standard recommends a multi-tap decision feedback equalizer be implemented to remove inter-symbol interference and additive system noise from data transmitted over a 10 Gigabit per Second (10 Gbps) multi-mode fiber-optic link (MMF). The recommended implementation produces a design in an analog process. This design process is difficult, time consuming, and is expensive to modify if first pass silicon success is not achieved. Performing the majority of the design in a well-characterized digital process with stable, evolutionary tools reduces the technical risk. ASIC design rule checking is more predictable than custom tools flows and produces regular, repeatable results. Register Transfer Language (RTL) changes can also be relatively quickly implemented when compared to the custom flow. However, standard cell methodologies are expected to achieve clock rates of roughly one-tenth of the corresponding analog process. The architecture and design for a parallel linear equalizer and decision feedback equalizer are presented. The presented design demonstrates an RTL implementation of 10 GHz filters operating in parallel at 625 MHz. The performance of the filters is characterized by testing the design against a set of 324 reference channels. The results are compared against the IEEE standard group s recommended implementation. The linear equalizer design of 20 taps equalizes 88 % of the reference channels. The decision feedback equalizer design of 20 forward and 1 reverse tap equalizes 93 % of the reference channels. Analysis of the unequalized channels in performed, and areas for continuing research are presented.

It has been estimated that approximately fifty percent of the United States’ population lives behind levees. Because these earth structures are typically long, subjected to seasonal changes and spatial variability, it is logical to analyze them in an uncertainty-based approach. This research is focused on assessing the potential of internal erosion related failure due to underseepage with the general objective of assessing the failure potential of individual geomorphic features while considering length effects. The project team was granted $204,000 from the National Science Foundation and $10,000 from the United States Society on Dams which resulted in research collaboration within graduate students and University of Delaware faculty as well as several presentations in prestigious conferences (in the U.S and Europe) and publication of journal papers. Findings from this research should be easily transferrable to other linear earth structures (such as dams, construction excavations, detention ponds, road embankments, etc.), and should significantly enhance reliability analysis across a wide array of structure types and geologic settings allowing a broad impact on future research, as well as geotechnical engineering practice.

There have been proposals of many parity inducing techniques like Forward ErrorCorrection (FEC) which try to cope the problem of channel induced errors to alarge extent if not completely eradicate. The convolutional codes have been widelyidentified to be very efficient among the known channel coding techniques. Theprocess of decoding the convolutionally encoded data stream at the receiving nodecan be quite complex, time consuming and memory inefficient.This thesis outlines the implementation of multistandard soft decision viterbidecoder and word length effects on it. Classic Viterbi algorithm and its variantsoft decision viterbi algorithm, Zero-tail termination and Tail-Biting terminationfor the trellis are discussed. For the final implementation in C language, the "Zero-Tail Termination" approach with soft decision Viterbi decoding is adopted. Thismemory efficient implementation approach is flexible for any code rate and anyconstraint length.The results obtained are compared with MATLAB reference decoder. Simulationresults have been provided which show the performance of the decoderand reveal the interesting trade-off of finite word length with system performance.Such investigation can be very beneficial for the hardware design of communicationsystems. This is of high interest for Viterbi algorithm as convolutional codes havebeen selected in several famous standards like WiMAX, EDGE, IEEE 802.11a,GPRS, WCDMA, GSM, CDMA 2000 and 3GPP-LTE.

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