(Charles) Kin P. Cheung Associate Professor
Dept. of Electrical & Computer Eng.
Rutgers University
94 Brett Rd., Piscataway, NJ 08854-8058
(732)-445-0680 Fax: (732)-445-2820
kpckpc@ieee.org

Last updated: Aug. 15, 2005

My Office: EE115 My Lab: EE119

Office hour: Wed. 2:00pm – 4:00pm

_____________________________________________________________________________________

My back ground
         I got my Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from the New York University in 1983, so I was trained as a chemist. Interestingly, my first job has nothing to do with chemistry. I became a post doc in the Solid State Physics Laboratory of Bell Laboratories at Murray Hill working on Ultra Fast Optoelectronics. In ultra fast, I mean sub-picosecond electrical pulses with frequency content extending into many THz ( 1THz = 1000GHz ). They were created with femtosecond laser pulses. These electrical pulse were much shorter than the pulses being use in the high-speed communication today, although that will probably change in the near future. We were studying the problem of transmitting the short pulses down transmission lines. All the issues of dispersion, distortion, radiation, etc.. The same issues that modern high-speed communication engineers are worrying about now. We also pioneered a new spectroscopy technique, namely THz spectroscopy, or coherent far infrared spectroscopy. It is a very active area of research today.
        After the post doc, I became a member of technical staff in Bell Labs at Murray Hill, but in a different division. I have been involved in the research of advanced IC technologies such as deposition of thin films, growth of thin films, thin films etching, technology integration and device/circuit reliability. Along the way, I published over 100 papers, written a monograph, a book chapter, edited two conference proceedings and gotten an award for my work in the field of plasma charging damage of thin gate-oxide. It was a fun 18 years.

Now that I am a professor, my interest in research is into longer term, more speculative technology.

Here are some of my

current interests:
Wafer level MEMS packaging technology.

This is an important technology bottleneck for micro-electromechanical-systems (MEMS).

Micro plasma system for display and lighting applications.

Novel sensors that leverage MEMS technology, wafer level packaging and micro plasma technology.

Collective vibration mode of immobilized large molecules in the form of self-assembled monolayer.

This is a basic science research project that can lead to major applications.

Defects in gate dielectrics and its impact on advanced integrated circuit reliability.

This is one of the key problem area in current and future integrated circuit technology.

Work function engineering and materials science of interface.

Polymer based random access memory.

Nanoscale materials.

Results from my hard work (last updated: July 22, 2004)

Teaching

Course: 14:332:590    Integrated Circuits
This course will emphasize on the processing technologies used in making silicon IC and the process integration issues. Even though integrated circuits from materials other than silicon are getting more popular, none is more mature and in wide spread use than silicon IC. In this course, instead of attempting to cover a wide range of processing technologies, I will do an in depth coverage of key silicon processing technologies such as wet and dry etching, thin film growth and deposition, diffusion and ion implantation, etc. The goal is to give students a good foundation on processing technology so that they can understand processing methods of other materials and structures when the need arises.
             The true challenge of any processing technology is in integration. Although the integration issues for silicon IC are quite different from other materials and structures, familiar with the issues in silicon integration will be useful for other technology as well. This course will emphasize on processing constraint due to very large scale integration issues and the solutions.
              The text book for this course is Silicon VLSI Technology by James D. Plummer, Michael D. Deal and Peter B. Griffin published by Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN 0-13-085037-3.
              Note: A very good source of many of the topics covered in this class is: IBM Journal of R & D - Vol. 43, Nos. 1/2, 1999 - Plasma processing
                       For a good article on cleaning technology, please see: http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/433/heyns.html

Course: 14:332:465    Physical Electronic
        This is device physics course. The emphasis is on basic physics that governs the property of electronic devices. This course is the first course to more advanced topics in electronics. It is the gateway for advanced study in electronics. Text book: Semiconductor Physics and Devices, Donald A. Neamen

Course:  14:332:464 Signal Integrity in High-Speed Digital Circuits

            Texts:                                  High-Speed Digital System Design, S. H. Hall, G. W. Hall and J. A. McCall;

            (References)                       Digital Signal Integrity, B. Young
                                                         High-Speed Digital Design, H. W. Johnson and M. Graham
                                                         EMC and the Printed Circuit Board, M. I. Montrose

            Prerequisites: (14:332:366) Digital Electronics, (14:332:382) Electromagnetic Fields

            Course Description:
High-speed digital system has unique problems associated with the speed of the signal. Traditional design courses do not prepare designer to deal with these problems. Since almost all designs are moving toward ever higher speed, signal integrity problem becomes everyday reality for circuit designers. This course will cover the basic physical principles behind various phenomena that lead to signal integrity problems in high-speed digital circuits. The emphasis will be on principles that can be applied to printed circuit boards (PCB), multi-chip-modules (MCM), system-on-package (SoP), system-onchip (SoC) and very-high performance integrated circuits (IC). The course will cover basic digital signaling, transmission-line, termination methods, differential signaling, electro-magnetic radiation, capacitive crosstalk, inductive crosstalk, simultaneous switching noise, ground bounce, measurement techniques, return path and non-ideal return path.