Prof. Choong-Un Kim

Dr. Kim, a professor and an associate chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, received his PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and his MS and BS degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Seoul National University.  He joined University of Texas/Arlington in 1996, where initiated various research programs mostly related to the reliability failures of interconnects in Si level interconnects (thin film metals and dielectrics) as well as the ones in the device packaging (solder alloys and wirebonds). While his research activity has been most extensive in the area of metallurgical understanding of interconnect failures mechanism under high density electric current (electromigration in metallic components) and high electric field (dielectric components), recent research foci include development of new solder alloys for heterogenous integration and methods of detecting damages in solder joints using a principle of an impedance spectroscopy.  Also researched in recent years is the corrosion risk of the datacenter where devices are cooled by either water or immersion cooling technologies. His research on interconnect has been substantially funded by SRC (semiconductor research corporation) for past 20 years without interruption and also by various other funding agencies and microelectronic companies. He is responsible for over 130 technical papers on the subjects related to the reliability failures in interconnect components in chips and their packages, including the Cu interconnects, low-k dielectrics and solder joints, and multiple patents and books on the same subjects.