Each year at the Banquet Reception,
The limericks are less than perfection.
    But in the past
    It's been a blast
And this year will be no exception!

"Professor" the student did beckon,
"You've been getting creative I reckon.
    "You presented a gem,
    "At the IEDM.
"Was Jack Daniels first author or second?"

Mr. Clinton awoke from a nap,
with a sharp, biting pain in his lap.
    "Mon Dieu!" cried poor Billy,
    "It seems my ol' Willy,
"Is caught in an intern-face trap!"

In the Forming Gas Anneal flow
Said Hydrogen: "Do us a favor though!
    If Silicon wants to be passivated
    The Bindin's must be investigated!"
That is just Elemental quid pro quo.

There was a man from Nantucket,
Who's talk was so long he should chuck it!
    By ignoring the Chair
    He inspired a glare,
And he ran off the stage to duck it.

When the session talks are too boring
And the chairperson is quietly snoring,
    Limericks we write,
    To win moissanite.
Inspiration and perspiration are pouring.

Yesterday my professor boasted in cheer,
Of his win while indulging in beer.
    But his limericks were junk,
    (Perhaps he was drunk?)
Now isn't how they choose the winner clear?

Finishing tight schedule this year
Flying to exciting SISC here
    For sightseeing?
    For working?
No, to meet everyone and drink beer!

"Oxygen Vacancies"

Though a defect they’re frequently treasured
In fact, they give some of us pleasure
    Blamed for every misfortune
    A missing, mystery portion
It’s convenient they’re so hard to measure!

My German professor says, Home, you must go!
Work late? That’s a big no-no!
    But in Asia PhDs strive,
    And in the US they drive,
His kindness makes my progress slow!

The 2024 Winner

"When I'm sixty-plus..."

Last year I turned sixty
Scaling got even more tricky
    My nMOS is fine
    It's actually one of a kind
But now my pMOS is leaky...

Mind overwhelmed with HfO₂, IGZO and Sn
And belly full of desserts, coke, beer, & gin
    Is SISC a vacation or a conference to attend?
    Now before Moore’s law comes to an end
Let this magnificent boat ride begin

To SISC, a new paper I was urged to submit:
"You’ll love it there, you’ll see! It’s gonna be a great fit!"
    Full of exciting new science,
    And greatest “old chaps” alliance.
All true, I admit! But last night’s whisky was truly my sh*t!

Came to SISC, learned about the nanosheet
Heard great talks and the stuff was neat
    To my surprise
    It was all a disguise
To get drunk on a boat and rest my tired feet

Here at SISC, wanna make a good impression
Presenting work at my groupmate's discretion.
    Nervous tension
    Heart rate ascension
Professor, can you take this question?

The 2023 Winner

"Tell me Why"

Paid for my student to come to SISC
She has no clue so it’s quite the risk
    She memorized it well
    Nobody could tell
Till questions caused a failed hard disk

In sunny San Diego, it's known
The beaches are perfect to roam
    The people are chill
    The tacos are thrill
And the burritos are bigger than phones!

RIP N(egative) C(apacitance) FET

Finally, NCFET is dead
I don't think that we should regret
    The physics were wrong
    Opinions so strong
But, man, how much fun we had!

EWF control of advanced high-thermal-budget RMG gate stack
Is the topic that we'll discuss, no lack
    Reliability physics for post-Moore era electronics
    And quantum transport simulation, so specific
All of this and more at our conference, don't miss it!

Progressive Revelation from the Skies (post-pandemic)

Flew from Brussels to SFO through London
"Look who's there on the Airbus: John Robertson!"
    Hopped down South from the bay
    "I'm sitting behind Peide: Yay!!
The Hospitality must have reopened: party-on!!!"

The 2022 Winner

Advisor sent me to SISC to advance my career
To learn about 2D materials, non-volatile memory, and peers
    What a Joyous Ride
    Drunk elderly men, and rushed slides
Shhhh! Let me seek collaborations while they are occupied with beer.

They say this is great for careers,
To rhyme and converse with your peers,
    But I came to this conference
    With a quite guilty conscious
Since I came to skip work and pound beers

SISC can’t find the sun
Advancing slides feels like a hand gun
    Maybe the good weather
    Left through the heat spreader
Some self heating would sure be welcome

Back to SISC were we all meet
And after a banquet that’s such a great treat
    Now to discussions that are quicker
    And slicker with liquor
Hey! ... Where’s the hospitality suite?

Perseverance!

α, β, γ, ε
η, Ι, κ, Ο
    Ποωερ ισ ουτ
    Ζοομ ιν δουβτ?
Βυτ ωιλλιαμ χαρριεσ ον!

The 2021 Winner

The largest question of them all:
Why is your font that small?
    The attendees are blind
    And we’re running behind
Please, dear god, pass the Tylenol

According to Professor Lee
Ternary Logic Computers we'll see
    Is that really true?
    Well let me tell you
The answer is yes - no - maybe!

We all love the raw beef roasted
Rather than those canvass posted
    Corona Sour
    and IPA bitter
I forgot how my films were deposited.

There was a Belgian named Van Houdt
Who knew what memory was about
    They showed him a loop
    He though it was poop
So he tossed all that NC crap out!

Three years ago SISC
There was a discussion 'bout negative C
    Now NCFET's a Hoax
    So let me tell you folks
The only thing left ... Is a memory

The 2019 Winner

My boss thinks I'm here for lots of learning
On 2D mat'l, quantum computing and hyper scaling
    But instead of studying ferroelectric
    I'm really here to write Limerick
Drink beer and hear Paul Hurley sing!

Lament of an Expert Solid State Chemist

Machine learning - no longer just hype,
For software to rule the time's right
    If we're obsolete
    Why should we still meet?
Like Hwang, let's present via Skype.

The 2017 Winner

My first time at the SISC
Why do you want to start so early?
    The topics are stalled
    The professors are bald
All I want to do is just sight see!

We all keep looking for very steep slope
On tunnel FETs we lost most of our hope.
    Well that may be sad
    But things are not that bad...
Since NCFET is our new DOPE.

The Conversation

Sayeef: "Negative capacitance is real."
T.-P.: "No - Depolarization is the deal.
    My dear orator,
    build a ring oscillator."
Sayeef: "It will be pursued with much zeal."

Two gentlemen went to a strip club.
One to the other: No need to snub,
    Don't doubt my capacity,
    Or my ferroelectricity!
They still got a very nice rub.

The Return of Ferroelectrics

Ferroelectrics are back and here to stay,
No matter what the critics say.
    The cap is dead,
    Long live the FET!
And finally T.-P. will get his way.

The 2016 Winner

Spooky TMD

Transition metal dichalcogenide
Can be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.
    With mysterious behaviour
    It might be our saviour
Because III-V has died.

Polarized States

Into the sun, I instigate,
But T.-P. and Sayeef are in for a debate,
    Again about the traitor,
    The rude capacitance with its negative behavior.
But who cares in times of swinging states.

OFF TOPIC

When ties and suits are worn
And science is reborn
    I couldn't but laugh
    At this one graph
That was labeled with "p or n"!

There once was a man named Andy
Whose favorite past time was drinking brandy.
    The current starts flowing
    And Andy starts glowing
Like a little kid who sees TMDs as candy.

ODE TO THE TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED

There once was a limerick tyranny
Ran by a man with transparencies.
    What a recruiter
    Does he even own a computer?
Oh my, we are seeing a rarity.

The 2015 Winner

LIMERICK LOVE LETTER (L³)

Call me your sweet sulfide,
Kiss me my darling selenide,
    On the key bridge of life,
    For ever my tantaluminous wife,
Living so happy in our two dimensional hide.

With 2-D materials now in our bucket,
It's the intrinsic properties we covet,
    But in practice, we've seen,
    That they're so seldom clean,
I may just throw up my arms and say **** it.

In Texas, Interface, Interface, Interface,
In Taiwan, Surface, Surface, Surface,
    The mobility is potentially high,
    But is actually shy,
So, CV is a mess, mess, mess!

My professor once did proclaim,
"In San Diego, they never get rain!"
    Now my shoes and my socks,
    Are filled up like locks,
And guess who's avoiding the blame.

The 2014 Winner

Node ten, node seven and node five,
Will need a material solution drive,
    Ge, III-V, or 2-D,
    Who knows that the solution will be,
In the end it might be only Si that will survive.

At 44th SISC:
Two poster sessions... yippee...
    Is IEEE needy?
    The program chair greedy?
Next year, please don't make it three!

There was once a fellow named Chad.
And at SEMATECH life wasn't bad.
    World he wanted to see,
    So he moved to UT,
And has now to work for his bread!

I'm here for the first time at SISC
Came for materials, especially 2D
    Almost the end of the roadmap
    And graphene has no bandgap.
Maybe we can just blame things on some O-vacancy.

The 2013 Winner

I have an advisor named Demkov,
Each new project made me scoff,
    Calculations of such fright,
    However try as I might,
I never could tell him to **** off.

Thought of the day

You can passivate my instabilities or wrap me in graphene.
You can Germanize my thoughts or make a silicene.
    Today I don't care,
    B'cause you should be aware,
My hourglass turns, 45 years I have seen.

The 2012 Winner

The Truth

Graphene, silicene, germanene, ...
To me, it sounds all rather obscene.
    Will there ever be a hit?
    'Course not, it's all shit!
But it keeps our funding on the scene!

Ma - rvellous

10 to 11 Dit is routine
When performing a hydrogen clean
    M.A.D. on the chip
    Then a wet sulfur dip
Man, the group of T.P. is supreme!

The Unholy Matrimony

Si was once CMOS's core.
She married a man named G. Moore.
    But she is now out!
    And Gordon, he'll shout:
"I am marrying group five three and four!"

The 2011 Winner

Melancholia

While sitting at dull SISC talk,
I was checking my life option stock.
    High-k is down,
    III-V is yawn,
And the damn stock market also broke.

III-V vs Nano

I thought that III-V's might be clever
Although others say: they'll work never!
    I tried and worked hard,
    Went Nano, that's smart
But problems got larger, however

T.P. has God's phone number

In today's inspiring rump session
T.P. got a phone call from heaven
    "III-V's here to stay
    NMOS leads the way"
Germanium? A dopant for Armageddon!

The 2010 Winner

The Enforcer

There was a man from UT Dallas
A stickler his name Robert Wallace
    But he kept us in line
    So we'd finish on time
He is one professional bad ass

PhD's financial status

I tell him I work on NAND
My friend says he does not understand
    "You are a PhD
    With an impressive CV
But make 1/2 of what I make in a musical band"

Graphene

Nobel prize for graphene is fantastic
It's a very low cost research topic
    Si-technology is now in the dark
    Scotch tape is powerful for the mark
So, Scotch-tape Interface Specialist Conference would be SISC

Andy & Tiger

We heard about Tiger, "__ Woods"
Who wrecks just in rich neighborhoods
    With trimethyl "Als"
    And a couple of gals
He "SiN"s to deliver the goods!

My supervisor told me to go to Washington
And hopefully get a post-doc position
    "Tell them about 2D hole gas
    And get the Nicollian prize"
But what I really want is to be the Limerick Champion

There was an SISC attendee from Orleans,
Whose thoughts drifted far from the scene,
    In a session he dreamed,
    Of a lithe beauty queen
Wrapped in only one layer of graphene.

Frankenstein continues to strive
Assembling parts in his hive,
    "My monster must work"
    He said with a smirk,
When it does, I'll shout, "It's a III-V"

The 2009 Winner

To the III-V interfaces field, I am new
Oh is that true, are you too?
    I hear the efforts are positive
    But results are negative
After all, III-V is minus II

Come to the SISC they said, it really is quite fine
You can learn a lot while you drink some wine
    But thanks to Chad
    And the advertisements he had
I ignored all the talks to think up this limerick of mine

THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT!

Will Ge or III-V ever be winning?
Will high-k oxide ever further be thinning?
    If you want to see
    Come to SISC
And experience the real Fermi level pinning!

T.P. says "No PMOS for me"
"Just III-V NMOS it will be"
    He's got an itch
    To retire rich
And enjoy the patent royalty!

Gate first or gate last -that's the question
In the relentless pursuit of perfection
    Big Blue says gate last is complicated
    But Intel's got high-k integrated
And boasts -"Now we've beat you to production!"

I flew all the way from New York
To learn from so many dorks
    I listened real hard
    To speakers at large
And still I'm not sure how it works.

The 2008 Winner

La incorporation is required with some reasonable concentration
However, we need to control its migration + penetration
    So, gate stacks need protection
    From this nasty infection
Otherwise, they may suffer from a horrible burning sensation!

III-V's are Doomed

Are you feeling a little bit colic
With bands that are not parabolic?
    Max offers no hope
    And so how will we cope?
Choose a hospitality-suite alcohol(ic)!

There once was a call for three-fives
For MOSFET projections to thrive.
    But the dielectric is lacking
    And research needs more backing.
So it looks like silicon will survive.

Sili-hafni-nitroxide from Hilo
Crashed the IC yields straight down to zero.
    The huge strain in the glass
    Was a pain and, alas,
Killer amps tunneled through by the kilo.

III-V, III-V, III-V, and back to silicon flow.
InGaAs, InGaAs, InGaAs, and then ... I do not know.
    10 years we did III-V.
    10 years more to go.
600 Intel Ph.D.s carry my (Ge) laptop home.

The 2007 Winner

The Beauty of k

A beautiful lovely hole from high-k
Mated with a hot electron from low-k.
    It was hot carrier injection
    Without any protection.
But what came out was still OK.

On the couch

A vacancy said to the shrink
"There is a void in my life," I think
    "I will snare an electron,
    Grow old as a polaron
And retire in an interface sink."

So by the year twenty-twenty
I say "No carbon nanotubes for me!"
    I must say "nope"!
    Give me ISOTOPE
And see how rich I will be!

A lost scientist

This year at SISC, we were addressed in Theo-englese
To me, it appears all *&^%$# (Chinese)
    .zzz.zzz.
    .bzzz.bzzz.
zzz.zzz.zzz. (don't disturb, please)

0 and 1...

0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1.
1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1.
    0 0 1 0.
    1 1 0 1.^*
1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1!

^*Editor's note: Apparent SEU in the least-significant bit.

The 2006 Winner

Why SISC can never take place in Germany

Deutsch ist schwer - man kennt's.
Zum Beispiel "SISC": Man nennt's
    einfach nur "H"
    denn das steht ja
für "HALBLEITERGRENZFLÄCHENSPEZIALISTENKONFERENZ"

A Soiled Reputation

A limerick chair named Pat
Proved to be a rat
    He slipped town
    He wasn't around
Another failed Sematech stat!

NBTI: Not Been Tried Iet?

Your NBTI model looks sick
Your gate stacks are leaky and too thick
    Accepted you'll be
    at the SISC
Just submit a 2 page long limerick!

Hafnia talks, there were many of them
By saying this I do not condemn
    The problems are great
    I can hardly wait
To learn the answers at IEDM!

Poster 19 is missing!
What was the speaker thinking?
    Did he forget that this year SISC
    Is in Washington DC?
Maybe this is a case of early tequila drinking.

The 2005 Winner

Director's Cut (Film Noir)
After all these talks, confusion I've had
Gate stack dynamics are driving me mad
    When viewed in totality
    There's clearly duality
Nitrogen's good - except when it's bad.

Theatrical Release (Hollywood Happy Ending)
After all these talks, be happy we should
Gate stack dynamics are well understood
    Reaction - diffusion
    Clears up all confusion
Hydrogen's bad - except when it's good!

In the morning at the SISC
I drank way too much coffee.
    Just one more speaker until the break;
    Talk faster, for heaven's sake!
I can't wait, I'm going out to pee.

This year's SISC had lost it's limerick contest chair
In despair, the general chair asked Kaczer for repair
    Whoa, he said, that (f....n) shit
    To Felix you may give it!
And let him suffer to save your bloody limerick fair!

NBTI - Not Been Tested Inough

So how does the hydrogen move?
Is it random? Does it follow a groove?
    With cleverness and wits,
    And the right data fits,
Any model is easy to prove!

Intel has created the perfect nanolaminate,
A layer of metal "A" on amorphous silicate.
    Then the chairman woke me up with a start,
    I have fallen asleep after too much apple tart
It's time to see more trappy aluminate!

What? What did he say?
The mic is far from OK.
    I would venture to muse
    That it's based on premature use
Of state-of-the-art high-K!

A grant-writing PI reflected,
"My nano-grant won't be rejected."
    Yet it was turned down,
    Which made him frown,
"They 'pico' or 'femto' expected!"

Lucovsky would like to decree,
Those states are not s - they are d!
    And over a beer,
    It will become clear,
It's all due to group theory!

There once was a girl named Poly,
She wanted to mate with hi-k badly.
    Then came metal-gate,
    Quickly became hi-k's mate,
Poly disappeared unfortunately.

In lack of submissions, a former SISC laureate named Kaczer,
Got nervous his splendid limerick contest would end in "misere".
    So to boost limerick writing,
    And pretend to make it exciting,
Perversely insinuated new limerick should take the "adult" flair.

The 2004 Winner

An amorphous hi-k would be nice,
For a CMOS transistor device.
    Though crystals we fear,
    Let us all drink a beer,
We'll have work until hell turns to ice!

Hafnium was a hot topic
But defects may make us drop it
    We thought we were dead
    Till the paper said
Intel's got it in their back pocket!

There once was man from the Navy
Who spooned out funding like gravy
    After a greeting
    He'd call for a meeting
"I need a good story—please save me!"

Poster authors were pressing their luck
The two-slide rule they decided to chuck.
    They spoke really fast
    Hoping time hadn't passed
And Carl-Mikael though "Man, what the ... heck!"

We arrived at JW's dry
Thinking vin's de la France would score high
    The waiter explained
    That the wine list had changed
Perhaps something British would fly?

Waiting for SISC 2004

Pat: "Not all oxides are grown equal.
Of mine you should speak well."
    André: "What do you know,
    Pb-nought's not very low!"
All: "Now we will have to wait for the sequel."

The 2003 Winner

Trombetta Vendetta

Break after break he makes us despair
His half-witted hacks I can no longer bear.
    My entry's goal
    Is to save us all
By making me next year's Limerick chair!

Jim Stathis says "We are DOOMED"
(At 26Å, he has assumed)
    But Jim, won't you say
    That High-K will save the day?
"No way, it will all go KABLOOM!"

The session was a-boil
Hi-K results proved royal.
    But Gerry piped in,
    And quelled the din:
"Sorry - limit one foil!"

P. T. Barnum knew just how to spin it
And he left us a most useful tenet.
    To understand CREE
    And its lofty P/E
"There's a SiC'er born every minute."

Said Donelli "The Mind," there's no doubt
You are missing my point, I will shout.
    IBM will go broke
    If they ignore my smoke
Hydrogen, not hot holes, takes the chip out.

Hafnium, Zirconium, an elemental zoo
Put them together in an oxygen stew
    They all act like funnels
    After the first electron tunnels
And they all smell like poo.

In Silicon Valley, the nerd
Has forgotten the Bee and the Bird.
    What he expects
    When he thinks of sex
Is verging on the absurd !

The 1999 Winner

Hey Baby, you look gorgeous tonight
I'm beaming with Nicollian's might
    She saw my ID
    And knew about CREE
She said no "nookie" without moissanite.

Again boring papers this year
I'm almost falling asleep, oh dear!
    Can't take it no more
    I'm going next door
Where it seems to be funnier than here!

"That" ... Roadmap

A session on a strange dielectric?
With elements that are eclectic?
    Oxide replaced?
    Our Prize disgraced!
Moore's law makes our lives too hectic.

Once while a fellow was napping
Dreaming of electron trapping
    He awoke with heart thumping
    As the thought of charge pumping
Yawned, then returned to his napping!

The data on oxides is showing
That after wine has been flowing
    Like oxides we too
    Must go to the loo
Our stress-induced leakage is growing

Those dose rate effects, if you please
On linear bipolar IC's
    Thrill some men so much
    They get out of touch
And cease noting their wives' pretty knees!

A girl that was young and promiscuous
Had ventured to mingle with SISC'ers.
    But when she was taught
    How holes become hot,
She fled, saying "oh, that's too risky!"