Biography


Bruno Riccò was born in Parma (Italy) on February 8 1947.

Education
Graduated in Electrical Engineering at the University of Bologna (Italy) in 1971.
Diploma in Solid State Physics at the University of Parma (Italy) in 1973.
Ph. D. in Physics at the University of Cambridge (U.K.) in 1976.


Academic and industrial achievements
In 1980, at the age of 33, Bruno Riccò became Full Professor of Applied Electronics at the University of Padua (Italy). In 1983 he joined the Department of Electronics of the University of Bologna (Italy) as Full Professor of Electronics.
Since 1978 he has been holding courses on Electron Devices, Digital Integrated Electronics and Semiconductor Technology, Reliability and testing of ICs.
Visiting Scholar at: the University of Stanford (1981); The IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center,(Yorktown Heights) (1983, 1986); the University of Washington (1998).
In 1995 he was received the G. Marconi Award of AEI (Italian Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) for his research activity.
In 1999 he founded the first university spin-off (Micro-idea) in Italy.


Professional Activities
President of the Technical Board of the National Consortium for Research in Microelectronics (ULISSE).
Italian Representative in the (European) JESSI Committee for Basic Long Term Research (1994 - 1996).
Director of Alta Frequenza, the Italian Journal on Electronics of AEI (Italian Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), since 1994.
President of the Microelectronics Group of AEI.
President of Gruppo Elettronica (GE - The Group including all Italian scientists in the field of Electronics).
Consultant for major European companies in the area of microelectronics, such as, in particular STMicroelectronics and Alcatel-Telettra and, since 1978, for the Commission of the European Union for planning, selecting and monitoring advanced research projects in the area of microelectronics.
Reviewer for a number of major international Journals in the field of electron devices and microelectronics as well as a Member of the Scientific Committees of major international Conferences.


Service for the IEEE
Senior Member since 1991.
European Editor of IEEE Transaction on Electron Devices from 1987 to 1996.
European representative in the Executive Committee of the international Electron Device Meeting (IEDM), since 1999.
Member of IEDM Sub-committees in the last 15 years.
Vice Chairman of the North Italy Section of IEEE (2000).
Chairman of the North Italy Section since 2002.
Fellow since 2003.

Scientific Activities
Form a scientific point of view, Prof. Riccò has worked in the field of Microelectronics, both from the point of view of electron devices and integrated circuits. In particular, he has made significant contributions in the following areas:

  Physics and modeling of electron transport in polycrystalline silicon;
  Tunneling in heterostructures;
  Silicon dioxide physics;
  Hot electron in MOSFETs;
  Latch-up in CMOS structures;
  Monte Carlo device simulation;
  Non volatile memories;
  IC testing and testability (DFT, BIST, Self-checking schemes).
  Low-Power circuits.

On these subjects, Prof. Riccò has (co-)authored over 290 publications, of wich more than 100 published on major international Journals, 19 presented at IEDM, the rest published on the proceedings of major international Conferences (a large part of these sponsored by the IEEE).
He is also author of 6 international patents (5 of which extended also in the U.S.A.), concerning CMOS structures and circuits.

Highlights of scientific achievements

  • First theory of electron transport in policrystalline silicon films (1978).
  • Concept of dynamic electron trapping in Si-Si02 thin films in the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling regime (1983, 1986).
  • Significant contributions to the physics of resonant tunneling in double barrier diodes (1984, 1985).
  • Pioneering work in low-voltage hot electron injection in MOSFETs (1985).
  • Novell technique to determine the thickness of SiO2 thin films (1988).
  • Pioneering work on Stress-Induced Leackage Current (SILC) in thin Si-SiO2 films (1988).
  • Novell technique to extract series resistances from I-V characteristics of MOSFETs (1989).
  • Pioneering work in Monte Carlo simulation of MOSFETs (1987, 9188).
  • Introduction of frequency-resolved spectroscopy to study the energy distribution of hot carriers in MOSFETs (1989, 1991).
  • First exact treatment of aliasing errors in signature analysis for IC testing (1990).
  • First simulation of EPROM writing (1991).
  • Controlled programming of tunnel-based floating gate MOSFETs (1994).
  • Improved DFT technique for CMOS ICs.
  • Novel characterization techniques for parasitic elements (overlap capacitance, gate depletion) in sub-micron MOSFETs (1997, 1998).
  • Simulation of CMOS power consumption at chip level (1997).
  • Calibration of analog and digital circuits by means of Floating Gate MOSFETs(1998).
  • Novel Ramped Gate Programming technique for Non Volatile Flash Memories (1999).
  • Pioneering studies on burst tunneling (1999).
  • Improved self-testing scheme for advanced ICs (2000).


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