After introducing new 22nm processes over the last year or two, foundries are gearing up the technology for production—and preparing for a showdown.
GlobalFoundries, Intel, TSMC and UMC are developing and/or expanding their efforts at 22nm amid signs this node could generate substantial business for applications like automotive, IoT and wireless. But foundry customers face some tough choic... » read more
Momentum is building for a new class of ferroelectric memories that could alter the next-generation memory landscape.
Generally, ferroelectrics are associated with a memory type called ferroelectric RAMs (FRAMs). Rolled out by several vendors in the late 1990s, FRAMs are low-power, nonvolatile devices, but they are also limited to niche applications and unable to scale beyond 130nm.
While... » read more
Foundry vendors are currently ramping up their 16nm/14nm [getkc id="185" kc_name="finFET"] processes in the market. Vendors are battling each other for business in the arena, although the migration from planar to finFETs is expected to be a slow and expensive process.
Still, despite the challenges at 16nm/14nm, vendors are gearing up for the next battle in the foundry business—the 10nm nod... » read more
Any approach to alternative channel integration must consider the lattice mismatch between silicon and other channel materials. Some schemes, such as IMEC’s selective epitaxy, view the lattice mismatch as an obstacle and look for ways to minimize its effects. This point of view certainly has merit: misfit dislocations do significantly degrade transistor performance. Still, back in 2011 Shu-Ha... » read more
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 â€... » read more
28nm Super Low Power is the low power CMOS offering delivered on a bulk silicon substrate for mobile consumer and digital consumer applications. The 28nm process technology is slated to become the foundation for a new generation of portable electronics that are capable of handling streaming video, data, voice, social networking and mobile commerce applications.
To view this white paper, clic... » read more
Designing and producing chips has always been difficult, but the number of things that conspire to make it harder at 20nm is the longest in the history of the semiconductor industry. The list will grow longer still at 14nm and beyond, not to mention so expensive that one mistake will kill a company.
While system engineers and architects look at the challenges on the front end, the problems ... » read more
28nm Super Low Power (28nm-SLP) is the low power CMOS offering delivered on a bulk silicon substrate for mobile consumer and digital consumer applications. This technology has four Vt's (high, regular, low and super low) for design flexibility with multi-channel length capability and offers the ultimate in small die size and low cost. Multiple SRAM bit cells for high density and high-performanc... » read more
By Ann Steffora Mutschler
As soon as a next generation semiconductor manufacturing process node is out, bets are taken on just how long the current advanced process node will last. The 28/20nm transition is no exception.
There is certainly a benefit to moving from 40nm to 28nm. The  availability of high-k/metal gate technology offers quite a few advantages in terms of power reduction... » read more
By David Lammers
Qualcomm CDMA Technologies said it will not use a high-k/metal gate (HKMG) process for most of the chips it makes at the 28 nm node, sticking with a poly/SiON gate stack. The company described the rationale behind the strategy, which because of Qualcomm’s size will have a major impact on the foundry business, at the 2010 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in ... » read more
Hydrogen fuel cells will play a role in the transportation ecosystem of the future, but how large a role hinges on infrastructure and application-specific demand.
Moving large amounts of data around a system is no longer the path to success. It is too slow and consumes too much power. It is time to flip the equation.
