This issue of ECS Transactions brings together the work of electrochemists, physicists, engineers, and device designers working in the area of magnetic thin-film technology. Topics include electrochemical and electroless plating systems, etching, process chemistry, tool design, process control, film nucleation and growth, structure of deposits, stress, physics and micromagnetics of films, thermal and magnetic annealing. Applications include the fabrication of data recording systems, sensors, microelectrochemical systems (MEMS) and other magnetic devices.

This issue documents the state of the field in magnetic thin film processing using electrochemical methods including film nucleation and growth, structure of deposits, stress and micromagnetics of films, thermal and magnetic annealing, electrochemical and electroless plating systems, etching, process chemistry, tool design, and process control.

The Eleventh International Symposium on Magnetic Materials, Processes and Devices was held on Monday and Tuesday, October 11 and 12, 2010 as part of the 218th Meeting of Electrochemical Society in Las Vegas, Nevada. This international Symposium included presentations by 59 authors and co-authors from Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway and the United States.

This book presents the design and manufacturing of microsystems as well as necessary key technologies developed within the Collaborative Research Center 516. The research efforts of this collaboration are focused on active micro systems which are based on the electromagnetic actuator principle. The travel of the investigated actuator systems is on the order of several millimeters. The total construction size of the actuator is on the range of several centimeters whereas essential structures being several micrometers. The methods and the production technologies that are investigated on the basis of various research models incorporate the fundamental process chains of microsystems.

Papers in this volume are from the 199th ECS Meeting, held in Washington, DC, Spring 2001. Morphology evolution encompasses electrochemical processing in ULSI fabrication, shape evolution, growth habit, and microstructure of electrodeposits. The most prominent example at present is the electrochemical deposition of copper for ULSI interconnects. Many other electrochemical processes at various stages of emergence and development hold promise for the electronics industry and beyond.