Pr. Daniel Alquier has more than 25 years experience in micro-and nano-electronics. He is working on wide band semiconductors (SiC / GaN) for power devices and applications. He has worked or led for GREMAN (Tours University/CNRS) more than 30 research projects (@ Europe, national (ANR, PIA) or regional levels). He has also a long experience of research management both in projects or as former lab director and research vice-president. He is author or co-author of more than 150 papers in international journals, 20 invited talks in international conferences and 7 patents.

Dr François BOULARD obtained a Master's degree in Plasma Physics from the University of Grenoble Alpes in 2006 and a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Nantes, France, in 2009. From 2010 to 2019, he was in charge of the technological development of high-performance infrared detectors at CEA-Leti. Since then, his research is focused on plasma etching processes for logic device fabrication, from FEOL to BEOL. Since 2023, he leads the 300mm etching and stripping engineering group at CEA-Leti. Scientific Director of the Patterning Division, he has authored about ten patents and published or presented more than 50 papers.

Silvia Braun joined Fraunhofer ENAS in October 2014 as research associate in the department System Packaging. Her scientific expertise is in the field of electroplating for assembly and connection technologies, spanning a diverse range of materials from her main focus aluminum, to copper, gold, gold-tin and reactive palladium-tin multilayer systems. After one year of parental leave, she returned to ENAS in September 2021, taking the group leadership role for innovative joining and deposition processes. In her PhD research, Mrs. Braun is concentrating on aluminum electrodeposition from ionic liquids for wafer level thermocompression bonding.

Alessandro Chini was born in Rovereto, Italy, in 1975. In 2003 he received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and telecommunication engineering from the University of Padova working on the fabrication, characterization, and reliability of GaN-based HEMTs for microwave power applications. Since 2004 he has been with the Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari” of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia where he is currently a Professor of Electronics. His research activity has been mainly focused on the characterization and development of GaAs-, GaN- and SiC-based compound semiconductor power devices by means of numerical simulations, device fabrication process improvement and the development of dedicated measurement test benches.

Ivan Ciofi is Principal Member of Technical Staff and Reliability Team Leader at imec, where he coordinates the experimental and modeling efforts towards the qualification and benchmarking of advanced interconnect technology options. He joined imec in 2001 after receiving M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Pisa, Italy. He has more than 20 years experience in BEOL process technology, electrical characterization, reliability, modeling and design-technology co-optimization.

André Clausner (Engineer and physicist) joined Fraunhofer IKTS in 2013. Since 2018 he leads the group Nanomechanics and Reliability for Microelectronics and since 2021 he leads the department Nanoanalysis and Microelectronic Materials. His research focus is on the engineering of materials, characterization methods as well as microelectronics advanced metallization and its reliability. He has (co)authored ~60 papers and serves in Technical Committees as well as Symposia and Conference organizing teams.

Marianne Coig joined the CEA-LETI in 2012 as ion implantation process engineer. From 2012 to 2018, she was in charge of the development of doping processes by ion implantation for photovoltaic technologies. Since 2014, part of her research is the doping of wide bandgap materials and in particular GaN grown on silicon for power and RF applications. Before starting here position at LETI, she worked a couple of years at ST Microelectronics as process and device engineer.

Dr Simon Elliott is director of atomic level process simulation at scientific software company Schrödinger, where he develops and applies techniques based on quantum mechanics and machine learning to the surface chemistry of materials deposition and etch. Prior to this, he studied chemistry at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), and led research on modelling atomic layer deposition (ALD) at Tyndall National Institute (Ireland). He was co-chair of the 16th International Conference on ALD, chair of a 175-member European ALD network and 2023 recipient of the ALD Innovator Award. He can sometimes be found introducing theatre improvisation games to scientists as a route to better communication skills

Paolo Fantini received the Laurea degree (cum laude) and the Ph.D. in solid-state physics from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) in 1995 and 1999, respectively. Then, he joined in STMicroelectronics (Agrate Brianza, Italy) in the Compact Modeling Team of the R&D Department, becoming the Team Leader in 2004. In 2011 he moved in Micron Technology Inc. where he contributes as Material and Device expert in the Emerging Memory arena. He has (co-)authored ~100 publications in international journals, conferences, book chapters covering many fields including solid-state physics, device physics, device characterization and modeling, low-frequency noise, and nonvolatile memories. He has also filed ~60 patents.

Patrice Gergaud is graduated from the Arts et Métiers Engineering School (ENSAM-Paris-1988) and received a PhD (Paris-1992) in mechanics of materials. He obtained the accreditation to supervise research, highest degree in the French university system (Univ. Grenoble Alpes-2016). After ten years as Senior Researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Marseille, he joined in 2006 the nano-characterization platform (PFNC) of the CEA-Minatec campus in Grenoble and is the group leader of the X-ray lab. He is CEA international expert in x-ray characterization for micro and nanotechnologies since 2009. His main field of interest is the structure and the mechanical properties of thin films and multilayers. He has large experience in X-ray scattering and synchrotron radiation. He has co-written close to 200 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters and he holds tens patents.

Johannes Heitmann holds a Ph.D. in Physics (MPI für Mikrostrukturphysik Halle 2003). Later he collected work experience in industry as Senior Engineer for Material Development at Infineon / Qimonda AG Dresden (2004-2009) and Senior Scientist at the namlab gGmbH Dresden (2009-2010). Since 2010 he is Director of the Institute for Applied Physics at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and since 2016 he is in charge of the Fraunhofer Technolgy Center for Semiconductor Materials (THM) Freiberg. His research interests are in the field of (nano-)crystalline semiconductor materials, point defects in nitride semiconductors and high-k materials for Si and nitride electronics.

Fiqiri Hodaj is full Professor of Materials Science at Grenoble INP - Université Grenoble Alpes, France. His research activities at Materials Science and Engineering (SIMaP) Laboratory are focused on the fundamental aspects of solid-liquid and solid-solid interfacial interactions (thermodynamics, wetting, nucleation, diffusion, reactivity) with particular applications to the joining of engineering ceramics by brazing alloys as well as soldering process in microelectronics.

Ferdinando Iucolano graduated in Physics with full marks at the University of Catania in 2004. In 2008 he received the Ph.D. degree in Physics on Nanoscale approach to charge transport phenomena in GaN-based structures. From 2011 he joined as power device designer for the development of GaN technology in the R&D department of STMicroelectronics. In 2014 became responsible for device physics and design group for wide band gap materials. Since 2017 he is in charge of design and product development for GaN-based power devices including RF-power, Power Switches devices and GaN ICs. He published more than 70 papers on international journals and patents.

Dr Delphine Le Cunff is Senior Member of Technical Staff and Advanced Metrology Manager at STMicroelectronics. She is in charge of innovation and development in metrology with a high connection with process control and manufacturing sciences. Her activities cover applications for a large panel of technologies such as compound semiconductor, 3D integration, advanced nodes… She started her carrier in semiconductor industry as an application engineer for Therma-Wave a major optical metrology supplier from 1997 to 2006. She then joined STMicroelectronics in Crolles (France) where she held different technical and management positions in metrology area. She received a Bachelor of Engineering in material sciences from the National Institute of Applied Science (INSA) at Rennes (France) in 1992 and a Ph.D. degree in physics at University of Grenoble (France) in 1995.

Frédéric Leroy is professor at Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France. His research is done at the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanoscience of Marseille. He focuses on the dynamics of surfaces and thin films under non-equilibrium conditions and aims at identifying the mechanisms of atomic transport related to thin film growth, solid state reactions or surface phase transitions. His research interests include solid state dewetting of thin films, electro- and thermo-migration processes and ferroelectric-ferroelastic properties of epitaxial thin films.

Giulio Marti is an R&D engineer at Imec within the process integration team, specializing in advanced interconnect technology. Before joining Imec in 2020, he served as a Process Integration Engineer at STMicroelectronics in France (Crolles), contributing to the PI/Device CMOS 28nm team after completing his Ph.D. in Material Engineering in 2016 through collaborative efforts with SiMAP (CNRS) and STMicroelectronics. With over a decade of experience, Giulio excels in BEOL process technology, electrical characterization, reliability analysis, and modeling

Farid Medjdoub is a CNRS senior scientist and leads the wide bandgap activities at IEMN in France since 2014. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical engineering from the University of Lille in 2004. Then, he moved to the University of Ulm in Germany as a research associate before joining IMEC as a senior scientist in 2008. Multiple state-of-the-art results have been realized in the frame of his work. Among others, world record thermal stability up to 1000 deg for a field effect transistor, best combination of cut-off frequency / breakdown voltage or highest lateral GaN-on-silicon breakdown voltage using a local substrate removal have been achieved. His research interests are the design, the fabrication, and characterization of innovative GaN-based devices. He is author and co-author of more than 200 papers in this field.

Since 2024, Serge Nicoleau is Group Vice-President Technology in charge of defining, implementing, and driving the R&D governance of Digital and BCD technologies of STMicroelectronics. He started his career in STMicroelectronics in 1998 in manufacturing management of the 200mm Crolles fab, nearby Grenoble. After various positions in manufacturing, process engineering, equipment engineering, he joined in 2004 the Crolles 300mm fab within the Crolles2 Alliance between STMicroelectronics, Motorola/Freescale and Philips/NXP. In 2007, he became Director of Industrial Technologies, before enlarging his responsibilities in 2012 as Deputy Director of the Operations of both Crolles 200 and 300 fabs. This role included a specific responsibility for the industrial challenges of Automotive and IoT products in technologies ranging from 0.5μm down to 28nm critical dimensions with their multiple variants and options. In 2018, Serge Nicoleau is engaged into the new STMicroelectronics 300mm fab program in Agrate (Italy) to support Smart Power, Analog Mixed Signal and eNVM products. Then in 2020, he took the responsibility of the Technology & Design Platforms organization as General Manager. This organization is covering digital technologies, fast analog technologies, embedded memories, and optical sensors, with teams in France, in India, in United States which are addressing the digital products of STMicroelectronics. Serge Nicoleau holds an Engineering Degree of the Ecole Polytechnique (Paris), a master’s degree in Theoretical Physics of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Lyon) and a PhD in Particle Physics.

Fabrizio Roccaforte received the M.Sc. Degree in Physics from the University of Catania (Italy) in 1996, and the PhD from the University of Göttingen (Germany) in 1999. After being visiting scientist at the University of Göttingen, and scientific consultant at STMicroelectronics (Italy), he joined CNR-IMM in Catania as a Researcher in 2001, and he became Senior Researcher in 2007 and Research Director in 2020. His research interests are mainly focused on wide band gap (WBG) semiconductors, (e.g., SiC, GaN, Ga2O3,..) materials and devices processing for power electronics devices. He is co-author of about 350 papers in international journals and proceedings, 10 book chapters, 5 patents, and he has given several invited talks and lectures at international conferences.

In 2018, I obtained my Engineer’s degree specialized in Material Science for Energy from the Engineer School ENSICAEN located in Caen (Normandy, France) . I joined CEA-Leti in 2018 after my graduation to work as plasma Process engineer. Since 2018, my work focusses on the etching of Gallium Nitride for industrial projects related to Power and RF, especially linked with GaN programs for Power devices for ST Microelectronics Catania and Tours. I also take part to two Joined Research Partnerships with the tool supplier Lam Research, to develop and explore jointly new etching solutions for GaN etching. Recently, I opened my expertise perimeter, by still working on GaN etching, but related to other projects for GaN-based LEDs and displays fabrication

Mario Giuseppe Saggio is the Design Director of Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices in STMicrolectronics. He is the Head of the SiC technology and product development in ST. He obtained his Physics Degree on Material Science at the University of Catania in 1991. He joined ST in 1995 after working as a researcher for Italian (CNR IMETEM) and German (FhG IIS-B) institutes. He has been leading the introduction and development of Silicon Superjunction technology in ST since 1998 with a significant contribution in the revolution of High Voltage Power devices. Mario began pioneering SiC research in 1997 and has been the head of the R&D and product development team for SiC Discrete and Modules since 2017. Through more than 25 years of research and development at ST, Mario has registered 64 patents and authored or coauthored 66 papers for international journals and conferences. For his many achievements, Mario has been appointed ST Company Fellow - the highest honor a technologist can receive at Company level - in March 2023.

Sabina Spiga is currently Research Director at CNR-IMM–Unit of Agrate Brianza (Italy), and she is in charge of developing oxide-based resistive switching non-volatile memories and memristive devices for neuromorphic systems and novel computing paradigms. S. Spiga received the Degree in Physics from the University of Bologna in 1995 and the Ph.D. in Material Science in 2002 from Università di Milano. In 2002-2003 she joined as post-doc fellow the MDM-INFM Laboratory, where she was appointed as tenure track researcher in February 2004. She became permanent staff researcher in 2009 at CNR-IMM (INFM was merged with CNR since 2005), Senior Researcher in 2018 and Research Director in January 2020.

André Vantomme (PhD 1991) is a professor at the division of Quantum Solid-State Physics at KU Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on the mutual interplay between structural and functional properties of hard condensed matter, when reducing size and dimension to the nm scale, with a major attention on thin film growth mechanisms, in particular silicides and germanides. Throughout his research career, ion beam modification of materials and ion beam analysis have played a major role, both in the Leuven Ion and Molecular Beam Laboratory and at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. AV is or has been a partner in several EU ion beam facility projects and has (co-)organized several key international conferences.

Bettina Wehring is currently finishing her PhD at the Fraunhofer IPMS Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT). Her main topic is the investigation of alternative diffusion barriers for Cu interconnects, where she gained insight into BEoL processes, analytical analyses and reliability characterizations. Before starting her PhD at CNT, she got her master’s degree in chemical engineering at TUD Dresden University of Technology and she worked several years as a project engineer at the Fraunhofer USA Center Midwest - Coatings and Diamond Technologies Division, in Michigan.