Clearing the atomic roadblock

University at Buffalo engineers are working to solve two significant roadblocks impeding the creation of smaller, faster and more powerful electronic devices.

Working atom by atom, Cemal Basaran, Ph.D., and David Kofke, Ph.D., are taking on the problems of electromigration and thermomigration -- the tendency for atoms to behave erratically when charged by the very high density electrical currents required to power very small but super-powerful electronic devices.

Basaran is director of the Electronics Packaging Lab in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and is professor in its Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering. A UB Distinguished Professor, Kofke is chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

High electrical current densities and high temperature gradients create voids within metal conductors, the researchers explain. This leads to breakdowns in circuitry and results in device failure. Moreover, as electronic devices and their circuits get smaller -- down to the nanoscale -- the damaging effects of electromigration and thermomigration increase.