Jim Stathis

Principal Research Staff Member, IBM Research, Yorktown Heights

I am a Principal RSM and work closely with the VP of Government Programs. 

I previously served as manager of a fantastic group of Researchers with deep expertise in electrical characterization of transistor gate dielectrics and transistor reliability, and dielectric breakdown in general, including BEOL dielectrics. My own expertise is in oxide breakdown and circuit reliability.

(full bio) Jim Stathis received a bachelor's in physics from Washington University in St. Louis (1980), and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1986), joining the IBM Research Division the same year. At IBM the focus of his work has been fundamental and practical studies of transistor reliability, including the electrical properties of point defects in SiO2, and the role of defects in wearout and breakdown. He is the author or coauthor of more than 180 research papers and over 75 invited talks and tutorials. From November 2005 to February 2007 he served as Technical Assistant to the Vice President for Science and Technology, IBM Research Division. In February 2007 he became manager of High-k/Metal-Gate Characterization and Reliability, IBM Research. In November 2017 he became head of operations and strategy for science and technology, reporting to the Vice President of Science and Government Programs, IBM Research. In April 2019 he became Principal Investigator, Government Programs. Jim has served on technical program committees for IEDM, SISC, INFOS, IRPS, ESREF, IPFA, MIEL and other conferences, and was an Associate Editor of the journal Microelectronics Reliability. He was the Technical Program Chair for IRPS 2009 and General Chair for IRPS 2011, and continues to serve on the Board of Directors for IRPS. He has presented tutorials on CMOS reliability at IRPS, ESREF, MRS, and IPFA. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and an IEEE Fellow. Jointly with Ernest Y. Wu, Jim is the recipient of the 2020 IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award, “For contributions to the understanding of gate dielectric reliability and its application to transistor scaling."

(short version, limited to 100 words:) Jim Stathis has a Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been with IBM Research since 1986 and is a Principal Research Staff member and Principal Investigator for government programs. He is the author or coauthor of more than 180 research papers and over 75 invited talks on defects, wearout and breakdown. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, an IEEE Fellow, and a recipient of the 2020 IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award.