The Trouble With FinFETs


By Joanne Itow The industry’s quest to continue on the semiconductor roadmap defined by Moore’s Law has led to the adoption of a new transistor structure. Whether you call them finFETs, tri-gate or 3D transistors, building these new devices is difficult. But the technology is only half the challenge. In 2002, Chen Ming Hu* spoke at the Semico Summit. The title of his presentation was �... » read more

Inflection Points


Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design talks with Paul Boudre, chief operating officer at Soitec, about FinFETs, industry inflection points, the end of life for planar transistors, bulk CMOS vs. SOI, the differences between fully depleted and partially depleted SOI, and the FD-SOI ecosystem. [youtube vid=8ZhfJLkImlk] » read more

28, 20nm Nodes Demand Advanced Power Management


By Ann Steffora Mutschler With the complexity of getting 28 and 20nm designs to reach desired yields with the desired power and performance on the shoulders of design teams, advanced power management techniques are a must. Sub-clock power gating, clock power gate structures, adaptive body bias and other techniques are making it possible. Sub-Clock Power Gating Far from a new techniqu... » read more

Leti Looks at Using Strain with FD-SOI for High-Perf Apps


The researchers at Leti working on FD-SOI have extremely deep expertise in it. One of the areas they've looked at is performance boosters. With the interest in FD-SOI rapidly increasing on the heels of the recent ST-GF announcement, their work becomes even more timely. A key Leti team wrote a summary of some recent strain work, which first appeared as part of the Advanced Substra... » read more

What’s ST’s FD-SOI Technology All About?


As I blogged here on SemiMD last week, STMicroelectronics has announced that to supplement in-house production at their fab in Crolles, the company has tapped GlobalFoundries for high-volume production of 28nm then 20nm FD-SOI mobile devices.  ST will also open access to its FD-SOI technology to GlobalFoundries’ other customers.  High-volume manufacturing will kick off with ST-Ericsson’s ... » read more

GloFo to Fab 28/20nm FD-SOI for ST; ST Tech Open to GF Customers


Two big pieces of news have recently been announced by STMicroelectronics: to supplement in-house production at Crolles, the company has tapped GlobalFoundries for high-volume production of 28nm then 20nm FD-SOI mobile devices; ST will open access to its FD-SOI technology to GlobalFoundries’ other customers. The high-volume manufacturing will kick off with ST-Ericsson’s ARM-based 2... » read more

Chenming Hu: SOI Can Empower New Transistors to 10nm and beyond


The following is a special guest post by Dr. Chenming Hu, TSMC Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley. He and his team published seminal papers on FinFETs (1999) and UTB-SOI (2000). This post first appeared as part of the Advanced Substrate News special edition on FD-SOI industrialization.  ~~ The good, old MOSFET is nearing its limits. Scaling issues and dopant-induced variations ... » read more

FinFETs And 3D ICs


Semiconductor Manufacturing and Design talks with Soitec's Steve Longoria about the role of FD-SOI in advanced semiconductor design and 3D stacks. [youtube vid=P7Ld14s9NY4] » read more

Soitec’s Wafer Roadmap for Fully Depleted Planar and 3D/FinFET


The following is a special guest post by Steve Longoria, Senior VP of Worldwide Business Development at Soitec.  It first appeared as part of the Advanced Substrate News special edition on FD-SOI industrialization. ~~ Today’s semiconductor industry is moving through several challenging transitions that are creating a significant opportunity for Soitec to bring incremental value to th... » read more

ST-Ericsson 28nm FD-SOI smartphone SOC, Q3 tape-out (interview)


ASN recently had a chance to talk to ST-Ericsson’s Chief Chip Architect Louis Tannyeres  about the move to 28nm FD-SOI for smartphones and tablet SOCs.  Take-away message:  FD-SOI solves – with less process complexity – scaling, leakage and variability issues to further shrink CMOS technology beyond 28nm. Here's what he said. ~~ [caption id="attachment_441" align="alignleft" wi... » read more

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