True to the vision of its founders, today's NETS Laboratory continues to focus on the research and creative use of thermal sciences to enhance the design and reliability of microeletronics and explore new scientific frontiers.

•     The Submicron Electro-Thermal Sciences Laboratory (SETSL) was established in 1995 in the School of Engineering and Applied Science(now School of Engineering) at SMU in recognition of the local industry’s needs for noninvasive characterization of the thermal properties of thin-film materials. The Laboratory features a laser-based transient thermoreflectance (TTR) measurement system, an electrical performance measurement system for microwave integrated circuits, and an adaptive computational tool for rapid thermal modeling and an electro-thermal analysis tool. For information on current research activities, please see the Projects section.

•     The high rate of innovation in electronics and telecom­munications has raised expectations for higher performance and functionality. Most advances to date have evolved from smart engineering and efficient manufacturing practices. Equally substantial gains are also possible from the introduction of innovative materials. Indeed, miniaturization and performance requirements have forced the use of existing materials beyond initially envisioned ranges and have spurred the development of specialty materials. Example areas include, among others, high-performance integrated circuits (ICs), communication infrared detectors, and thermo-electric cooling systems.
      Knowledge of material properties is fundamental to the design process, especially for electronic and telecommunication devices, where performance depends heavily on electro-thermal interactions. Higher performance is only possible by significant reductions in the size of active features, which in turn can increase heat generation densities to critical levels. It is now widely held that bulk and thin-film thermal properties differ markedly. However, since no universal behavior is expected for these differences and since they cannot be predicted from theory, the properties of each material must be measured separately. Also, as thin-film materials are normally layered, each interface contributes an additional resistance, which is unknown and must be measured in situ since deposition techniques differ between manufacturers.
      Research and development efforts at the NETSL have yielded numerical techniques and experimental systems to thermally analyze and design ICs and devices. The experimental systems can noninvasively measure surface temperatures of active devices, as well as the thermal properties of the materials used, including dielectrics and semiconductors. A novel self-adaptive numerical simulation method provides a unique capability for the thermal analysis and design of highly complex ICs. When used in combination with the experimental system, which can provide measurements of the surface (boundary) temperatures, the method provides an even more unique capability for determining the detailed internal temperatures of embedded (and thus invisible) features with any desired detail.

• For information on current research activities, please see the Projects section.