Newcastle University

Background

I was born and raised in Mexico City. I lived there until i concluded a five year long first degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). There i had the opportunity to write my thesis under the supervision of Dr Elfego Ruiz-Schneider, following a one year research placement at the Astronomy Institute. Short after graduating in 2003, i came to Newcastle to study the MSc in Microelectronics and continued with a PhD with Si/SiGe group the following year, finally graduating in 2008. Both during my PhD and my current research i have worked alongside Dr Sarah Olsen and Prof Anthony O'Neill.

Languages

Spanish, English, German, Russian (basic), Nahuatl (very basic).

Informal Interests

I drink coffee and read a lot (both things). When not at work, i can often be found reading away in some cafe in town. I am also a guitarist and have an ever-growing interest for roots, folk and blues music. Other interests include stragegy games such as Magic the Gathering and chess and, more recently, swing dance.

Research Interests

My research involves characterisation of strained Si/SiGe materials and devices. This includes the electrical characterisation of devices as well as material studies using atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman spectroscopy and chemical techniques for device de-processing and defect observation in semiconductors.

Other Expertise

Working with the Nano-Materials and Electronics group, i have also been involved with the design and fabrication of the first strained Si heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT).

2010 - 2011: EEE8103/EEE8019 Semiconductor Device Fabrication

• Kapoor R, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Bull SJ. Nanoscale Characterization of Gate Leakage in Strained High-Mobility Devices. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2011, 58(11), 4016-4023.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG, Coulson H. Defect identification in strained Si/SiGe heterolayers for device applications. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 2009, 42(17), 6.
• Persson S, Fjer M, Escobedo-Cousin E, Malm G, Wang YB, Hellstrom PE, Ostling M, Parker EHC, Nash LJ, Majhi P, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG. Fabrication and characterisation of strained Si heterojunction bipolar transistors on virtual substrates. In: IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).2008,San Francisco, CA:IEEE
• Persson S, Fjer M, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Malm G, Wang YB, Hellstrom PE, Ostling M, O'Neill AG. Strained-Silicon Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2010, 57(6), 1243-1252.
• Olsen SH, Yan L, Agaiby R, Escobedo-Cousin E, O'Neill AG, Hellström PE, Ostling M, Lyutovich K, Kasper E, Claeys C, Parker EHC. Strained Si/SiGe MOS technology: Improving gate dielectric integrity. Microelectronic Engineering 2009, 86(3), 218-223.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, Dobrosz P, Bull SJ, O'Neill AG, Coulson H, Claeys C, Loo R, Delhougne R, Caymax M. Thermal stability of supercritical thickness-strained Si layers on thin strain-relaxed buffers. Journal of Applied Physics 2007, 102(12), -.
• Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG, Alatise OM, Agaiby RMB, Dobrosz P, Braithwaite G, Cuthbertson A, Grasby T, Parker EHC. Strained Si/strained SiGe/relaxed SiGe structures: identifying roughness due to compressed SiGe and its impact on high mobility MOSFETs. In: Materials REsearch Society Conference (MRS).2007,San Francisco, USA
• Olsen SH, Escobedo-Cousin E, Varzgar JB, Agaiby R, Seger J, Dobrosz P, Chattopadhyay S, Bull SJ, O'Neill AG, Hellstrom P-E, Edholm J, Ostling M, Lyutovich KL, Oehme M, Kasper E. Control of self-heating in thin virtual substrate strained Si MOSFETs. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2006, 53(9), 2296-2305.
• Yan L, Olsen SH, Escobedo-Cousin E, O'Neill AG. Improved gate oxide integrity of strained Si n-channel metal oxide silicon field effect transistors using thin virtual substrates. Journal of Applied Physics 2008, 103(9), 094508.
• Tsang YL, Chattopadhyay S, Uppal S, Escobedo-Cousin E, Ramakrishnan HK, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG. Modeling of the threshold voltage in strained Si/Si1-x Gex/S1-yGey(x ≥ y) CMOS architectures. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 2007, 54(11), 3040-3048.
• Varzgar JB, Kanoun M, Uppal S, Chattopadhyay S, Tsang YL, Escobedo-Cousin E, Olsen SH, O'Neill AG, Hellstrom PE, Edholm J, Ostling M, Lyutovich K, Oehme M, Kasper E. Reliability study of ultra-thin gate oxides on strained-Si/SiGe MOS structures. Material Science and Engineering B 2006, 135(3), 203-206.