It is well known that Taiwan's IC industry is in the very leading front of the world, and production of 65 nm devices was launched in 2006. Within a few years, the need of high-k dielectrics and metal gates is eminent and truly indispensable. Professor H.L. Hwang (the author) organized 12 professors and 50 graduate students of National Tsing Hua University and Chiao Tung University, and executed this particular project, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Republic of China, and is aimed at treating efficiently this problem and transferred the critical technologies to industry in a time frame of 3 years. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.