TSMC talks big about 28nm

TSMC IS RATCHETING UP the rhetoric on its 28nm plans, telling anyone and everyone who will listen that it is ahead of the competition on developing a functional 64-Mbit SRAM cell based on the new process tech.

At the 2009 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits in Kyoto, Japan, TSMC released a paper announcing a 28nm process that it says will allow for a silicon dioxide or high-k metal-gate scheme on a low power technology, which purportedly will push silicon oxynitride poly usage past 32nm, with a dual or triple gate oxide process.

The 6-T SRAM cells are being hyped as low leakage with analog/RF/electrical fuse components, copper interconnects and low-k, with a cell size of 0.127-um2, and a raw gate density as high as 3900 kGate/mm2

TSMC is also boasting a 25 to 40 per cent speed improvement as well as 30 to 50 per cent active power reduction using 28nm over 45nm, and it's saying its first offerings should be available come early 2010.

It seems fairly obvious that the battle trenches are being dug between TSMC and IBM's technology alliance, which includes the fab five: Chartered Semiconductor, Global Foundries, Infineon Technologies, Samsung Electronics and ST Microelectronics.

Back in April, IBM and its gang of five announced they too would be moving to 28nm process technology, jointly developing 28nm high-k metal gate technology. So a real fab fight could be looming on the horizon.

GloFo's director of corporate communications, Jon Carvill, has already told the INQ about the "tremendous interest from prospective customers" for 28nm chips, which he says will strengthen the firm's ability to "compete and win in the graphics business".

The AMD fab spinoff plans to install 28nm designs in its Dresden fab by the second half of 2010 and start production soon after. In the same timeframe as TSMC, apparently. The difference at GloFo, however, will be that 28nm technology will be Global Foundries' second-generation process node with high-k metal gate, whilst TSMC is still staying schtum on the subject of its "leak-less" technology.

Meanwhile, TSMC is also turning up the chatter about moving its IC-equipment out of its R&D fab to prepare for an upcoming 22-nm node. The Taiwanese firm has done a 180-degree flip from its stance back in April when its CEO, Morris Chang, told investors the firm would cut capital expenditure by about 20 per cent from $1.9bn to $1.5bn. Instead it is now calling for an increase in R&D spending of 20 per cent and saying, "For our industry, I feel the worst is over."

The statement comes one month after TSMC backtracked and said it would rehire hundreds of employees that it layed off, supposedly owing to "the economic crisis".

Sheesh, IBM and friends must really have the Taiwanese chipmaker feeling the heat from the chip vats. µ