Semi technologies gear up for post 22nm

SILICON CMOS is in for a treat: a plethora of new tech is in the works to improve on current CMOS logic and memory performance according to Sematech vice president, Raj Jammy.

Speaking at Semicon's TechXPOT (which was sadly not as sexy as it sounds) Jammy gushed about exciting innovations in high-mobility graphene channels, double-gate transistors built on SOI substrates - known as finFETs - complete with III-V materials and gates built around nanowires. All thrilling stuff and apparently the best way to make silicon sing with power and performance beyond 22nm.

Singing the blues, Jammy wailed that too many people were "entrenched in the silicon world" and needed redemption from the oppressive thinking chaining them to current CMOS transistor scaling methods.

"We need disruptive materials and technologies," said Jammy, calling for a semi revolution as R&D progresses to 22nms and beyond.

Germanium, which believe it or not isn't a flower your grandmother keeps on her porch, is proving exceptionally useful in positive channel field effect transistors (pFETs), whilst indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) purportedly works wonders on the nFET.

Jammy told the audience how exciting memory R&D was becoming even in its old age, moving away from charge storage - which becomes virtually impossible the smaller devices become - towards phase-change memories (PCRAMs) and metallic resistive RAMs (ReRAMs). The only problem is that it's still unclear how well ReRAM will work below 20nm.

Adding his notes to the symphony of silicon wonders, Schubert Chu of Applied Materials discussed new breakthroughs in embedded silicon carbon (eSiC) and embedded silicon germanium (eSiGe), which hasn't proved easy because the pesky carbon atoms fidget about. Still, "silicon carbon is on track to be adopted at the 22nm generation," said Chu.

Another technology attracting a fair bit of attention is zero-leakage nanoelectrical-mechanical system (NEMS) devices which can exhibit instant on and off and are so safe they can even be used inside nuclear power plants.

But it wasn't all sweetness and light at silicon central, with Jammy offering stern advice to industry players about keeping product pricing in check. "When we hear that it may cost $80 million for an EUV scanner, we are not going in the right direction on costs," he tutted.

Well, no wafer no cry. µ