Prof. Duane S Boning

Vice Provost for International Activities (VPIA)
Clarence J LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering
Associate Director for Computation, Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL)
Engineering Faculty Co-Director, Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Program

Primary DLC

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

MIT Room: 39-415A

Areas of Interest and Expertise

Semiconductor Manufacturing<br>Metrology and Modeling of IC and MEMS Process, Device and Circuit Variation<br>Computer Tools and Systems for Statistical Design for Manufacturability, and Environmentally Benign Manufacturing
Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP)
Plasma Etch and Imprint/Embossing Processes
Manufacturing Process Technology

Research Summary

Professor Boning directs the the Statistical Metrology Group, which focuses on the understanding and reduction of variation in advanced micro- and nano-fabrication processes, devices, and circuits, particularly in integrated circuit, photonic and MEMS technologies. We develop new methods and approaches to measure, model, and mitigate the wide range of deviations observed in manufactured devices.

One branch of work is closely tied to important semiconductor fabrication processes, and emerging processes in MEMS and nanofabrication technologies. Processes of particular interest include chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), electroplating, deep reactive ion etch (DRIE), hot embossing, and nanoimprint lithography. In each of these, we have developed test structures and masks, and approaches to measure systematic variation at the wafer scale as well as die scale (particularly layout pattern dependent variations). These measurements are coupled to empirical and physical models and simulation tools, for designers to predict manufacturing results for their particular layout. Finally, methods to reduce or mitigate these variations are being explored, such as through
dummy fill strategies.

The second major branch of work is tied to the design implications of manufacturing variation. We develop novel test circuits to measure variation, particularly to gather the large numbers of measurements to enable modeling of not only mean but also variance dependencies. We develop new approaches to model these variations, ranging from spatial correlation models, to systematic layout models, to random and other variation models in compact model form. We study the impact of variations in parameters such as Vt, Id(sat), and leakage on circuit and system (e.g. multicore) design. Finally, we consider yield optimization, circuit compensation and self-healing approaches to mitigate these variations.

Recent Work

  • Video

    2024 MIT R&D Conference: Track 5 - AI - The Road to Digital Twins in Semiconductor Manufacturing

    November 19, 2024Conference Video Duration: 25:26
    The Road to Digital Twins in Semiconductor Manufacturing
    Duane Boning
    MIT Vice Provost for International Activities (VPIA)
    Associate Director, Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL)
    Clarence J. LeBel Professor, MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)

    There is great interest in “digital twins” to improve many aspects of semiconductor manufacturing, from increased device yield and performance, reduced consumption of energy and materials, increased flexibility, and to enable rapid uptake and scaling of new material, equipment, and process innovations. The digital twin has both physical and virtual components, with bilateral communication and control; the hope is to enable a wide range of models (of equipment, processes, wafers) at different fidelities (physical to simplified empirical, and machine-learning enabled), to support a wide range of “smart” functionalities. The road to digital twins goes through and builds upon many well-trodden paths. Here, several lines of research at MTL since the late 1980’s are highlighted, beginning with elements of the MIT Computer Aided Fabrication Environment including process flow languages, to DOE/Opt methods for automated surrogate model construction, and run by run control to track and compensate for equipment state and wear in CMP and other unit processes. The development of “statistical metrology” methods encompassed characterization and modeling of semiconductor variation, with layout pattern dependent models to identify “hot spots” in planarization, dishing, and erosion for a given design, as well as to guide dummy fill generation. An evolution from statistical to ML/AI approaches, particularly Bayesian methods, enabled design for manufacturability (DFM) for rapid MOSFET characterization, and then rapid fabrication process tuning, as well as AI-enabled anomaly detection. These and other paths bring us to an exciting next stage of the journey: by harnessing advances in sensing and data collection, AI methods, and computational power not possible at the beginning, the community is poised to create and deploy digital twins for semiconductor manufacturing.

    RD-11.15-16.2022-Panel-Fact-Fiction

    November 16, 2022Conference Video Duration: 35:55

    Brian Anthony
    Faculty Lead, Industry Immersion Program in Mechanical Engineering
    Co-Director, MIT Clinical Research Center
    Associate Director, MIT.nano
    Duane Boning
    Clarence J. LeBel Professor in Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    Erik v Head of Product & EcosystemTulip
    Steven Moskowitz
    Director of Digital Transformation, Entegris

    RD-11.15-16.2022-Boning

    November 16, 2022Conference Video Duration: 31:1
    Duane Boning
    Clarence J. LeBel Professor in Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

    4.8.21-Water-Industry-Roundtable

    April 8, 2021Conference Video Duration: 121:54

    Steven Leeb
    Professor of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    Duane Boning
    Clarence J. LeBel Professor,
    Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
    Alejandro Beivide García
    Chief Digital Officer, Acciona Infraestructures
    David Knezevic
    Co-founder & CTO, Akselos
    Jongyoon Han
    Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Biological Engineering
    Rohit Karnik
    Professor & Associate Department Head for Education
    Department of Mechanical Engineering
    Robert Teich
    Senior Marketing Director, Analytics, Xylem
    Anurag Bajpayee
    Co-Founder and CEO, Gradiant

    John Lienhard
    Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Food
    Director, Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab
    Director, Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy
    MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

    4.8.21-Water-Industry-Roundtable

    April 8, 2021Conference Video Duration: 121:54

    Steven Leeb
    Professor of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    Duane Boning
    Clarence J. LeBel Professor,
    Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT
    Alejandro Beivide García
    Chief Digital Officer, Acciona Infraestructures
    David Knezevic
    Co-founder & CTO, Akselos
    Jongyoon Han
    Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Biological Engineering
    Rohit Karnik
    Professor & Associate Department Head for Education
    Department of Mechanical Engineering
    Robert Teich
    Senior Marketing Director, Analytics, Xylem
    Anurag Bajpayee
    Co-Founder and CEO, Gradiant

    John Lienhard
    Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Water and Food
    Director, Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab
    Director, Center for Clean Water and Clean Energy
    MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering

    4.6.21-Water-Industry-Duane-Boning

    April 6, 2021Conference Video Duration: 19:3
    Duane Boning
    Clarence J. LeBel Professor,
    Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT

    2021-Future-of-Manufacturing-Duane-Boning

    March 2, 2021Conference Video Duration: 19:3
    Duane S. Boning
    Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
    Engineering Faculty Co-Director, Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Program
    MTL Associate Director, Computation and CAD

    Duane Boning - 2019 RD Conference

    November 20, 2019Conference Video Duration: 41:10

    Machine Intelligence for Manufacturing and Operations: Opportunities and Challenges

    The large amounts of both structured and unstructured data created in manufacturing and operations today present enormous opportunities to apply advanced analytics, machine learning and deep learning. This talk will describe specific use cases in process control and optimization; yield prediction and enhancement; defect inspection and classification and anomaly detection in time series data. Additionally, some of the unique manufacturing and operations challenges like: class imbalance, concept drift and complex multivariate time dynamics will be described. This research has led to the creation of MIT MIMO (Machine Intelligence for Manufacturing and Operations) which will be described during this talk.

    2019 MIT Research and Development Conference