Applied Materials Makes the Transistor Cool Again with Integrated
High-k/Metal Gate Technology
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The time has come to make dramatic changes in the transistor –
to integrate new materials and processes in its gate structure to make
chips faster and more power-efficient, enabling Moore’s
Law to continue. Applied Materials, Inc. today unveiled the technologies
to help customers make it happen – a
comprehensive portfolio of fully characterized processes for building
high-k/metal gate (HK/MG) structures in high volume production.
“For years, integrating new gate materials has
been viewed by our customers as the most formidable roadblock to
scaling. We want to help them minimize this risk by providing
integration-proven HK/MG technologies to make their transition faster”
Starting at the 45nm node for logic chips, transistors are so small that
conventional gate materials are no longer effective, allowing excessive
current leakage that heats up the transistor and consumes excessive
power. HK/MG structures can offer >100x
reduction in gate leakage and significantly faster switching speed. To
illustrate the energy savings, if all the microchips shipped in 2006 had
used HK/MG technology, the total power saved(1) could provide
electricity to over 4.5 million homes for a year. But using new HK/MG
materials to make the transistor “cool”
again solves only part of the problem. The real challenge is integrating
these HK/MG materials into the device to create optimized gate
structures having atomically-engineered interfaces with the performance
needed for volume manufacturing.
“For years, integrating new gate materials has
been viewed by our customers as the most formidable roadblock to
scaling. We want to help them minimize this risk by providing
integration-proven HK/MG technologies to make their transition faster,”
said Tom St. Dennis, senior vice president and general manager of Applied’s
Silicon Systems Group. “Applied has a strong
history of helping customers integrate new materials into their process
flow, most recently with the transition to low k dielectrics. Since we
have the upstream and downstream technologies, we can optimize the
process sequence and help customers successfully integrate HK/MG
technology to fabricate their most advanced transistors.”
There are several approaches to manufacturing HK/MG structures and
Applied has a solid lineup of systems that support customers’
different approaches. These fully characterized processes are
integration-tested to reduce customers’ time
to achieve fully-optimized HK/MG structures. Rather than providing just
a high-k film, Applied delivers an integrated dielectric stack solution
on a single Centura®
platform that combines four critical processes (high-k deposition,
oxidation, nitridation and anneal). For the challenging metal gate
stack, Applied builds on years of leadership in metal deposition
technology to offer a portfolio of integration schemes on its Endura®
platform using ALD(2) and PVD(3) technologies to address a variety of
customer designs. Applied’s new innovative
high temperature etch technology delivers the critical profiles needed
for production etching of HK/MG stacks. With 25nm defect sensitivity and
automated FIB(4), Applied’s defect
inspection, review and analysis systems accelerate critical defect and
process learning for HK/MG structures.
Applied characterized its HK/MG technology at its Maydan Technology
Center, one of the world’s most advanced
semiconductor process laboratories. Using the company’s
systems and technologies, Applied engineers successfully demonstrated
and tested HK/MG structures for both logic and memory (charge trap
Flash) devices down to the 22nm design node. These structures can give
customers a head start on their next-generation process flows. For
details on Applied’s HK/MG solutions, visit www.appliedmaterials.com/Highk_MetalGate.
Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMAT) is the global leader in
Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with
a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products
for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panels, solar
photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At
Applied Materials, we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the
way people live. Learn more at www.appliedmaterials.com.
(1) Estimate based on one year, 12-hour/day chip usage. For consumers
this means longer-lasting batteries in laptops and more functionality in
computers.
(2) ALD: atomic layer deposition
(3) PVD: physical vapor deposition
(4) FIB: focused ion beam
