MS&E Seminar Series: Cyprian Emeka Uzoh

UW-Madison Department of Materials Science and Engineering welcomes Cyprian Emeka Uzoh. His seminar, “Advances in high-performance metallization and packaging for advanced semiconductor applications”, will take place on Thursday, November 6 from 1-2 p.m. in MSE 265.

Bio

Cyprian Emeka Uzoh earned a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1978, followed by graduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He began his career as a research scientist at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where his pioneering contributions to semiconductor metallization laid the groundwork for transformative advances in the field. Following his tenure at IBM, Uzoh continued to drive innovation through leadership roles in several leading technology companies, advancing the development and commercialization of cutting-edge metallization and packaging technologies. His inventions have become the foundation for modern high-performance devices, enabling the scalable fabrication of CPUs, GPUs, high-bandwidth memory, and advanced image sensors used worldwide. In late 1980s and early 1990s his discovery of the bottom-up metal filling process for submicron vias and trenches, along with the demonstration of its scalability to feature sizes below 100nm, would mark a significant advancement in semiconductor manufacturing. These innovations, combined with other Uzoh’s related contributions, enabled the fabrication of lower-cost microchips with both larger and smaller form factors, increased transistor density, and improved electrical performance. The resulting enhancements in interconnect efficiency and reliability have had a lasting impact on the performance and scalability of modern integrated circuits. Uzoh and his colleagues at IBM Research were named “Inventor of the Year 2006” for his discovery of the bottom-up metal filling process and their development of the copper interconnect technology. Uzoh is also a prolific inventor, with 404 Utility patents in the US and more than 750 worldwide.

Abstract

Copper interconnects have become a foundational component in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, serving as critical enablers for high-performance integrated circuits. Their low resistivity, high electromigration resistance, and compatibility with damascene processing have made them indispensable for fabricating leading-edge devices such as GPUs, CPUs, NPUs, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) modules, interposers, and CMOS image sensors. These components are integral to a broad spectrum of systems, ranging from edge devices like IoT nodes and mobile platforms to high-performance computing infrastructure, including data centers and exascale supercomputers. As device scaling continues and interconnect bottlenecks increasingly constrain system performance, the role of copper interconnects in achieving low-latency, high-throughput, and thermally optimized architectures remains critical. This discussion will explore the development and impact of pivotal innovations, including the invention of the proximity plating cell, bottom-up metal deposition in large cavities (ECMD), and the elimination of terminal effects in electroplating, each of which challenged established principles of electrodeposition kinetics. In addition, Uzoh will present in detail his pioneering work in enabling high-density 3D integrated circuits (3D-ICs) and the commercialization of hybrid bonding, a technique that allows for ultra-dense, high-performance chip stacking without the need for adhesive layers.