AUSTIN, TX — (MARKET WIRE) — 04/19/2005 — SEMATECH announced its Top Technical Challenges for 2006, continuing to underscore advanced gate stack, 193 nm immersion and EUV lithography, mask infrastructure, and low-k dielectrics with process compatibility. Consortium leaders also placed planar bulk transistor scaling on the list for the first time.
SEMATECH uses the Top Challenges to focus its resources on the most critical of approximately 75 projects that it maintains in key areas of semiconductor and related R&D. The SEMATECH research portfolio is developed by the consortium’s Executive Steering Council (ESC), in consultation with corporate managers.
“SEMATECH continues to remain at the forefront of semiconductor R&D, and this set of challenges reflects our commitment to that goal,” said Michael R. Polcari, SEMATECH President and CEO. “This list also reflects the guidance of our member companies on how to best use our skills and resources to benefit SEMATECH’s members and the industry. We’ll address many of these issues in collaboration with our R&D partners, including the university researchers investigating promising semiconductor technologies in our Texas-based Advanced Materials Research Center [AMRC].”
The SEMATECH challenges reflect the consensus of the consortium’s member companies, and are grouped below by technical area:
Lithography
— Immersion Lithography has been developed as a method for extending the
resolution and depth of focus of optical lithography, by interposing a
liquid between an exposure tool’s projection lens and a wafer. Prototype
immersion tools are beginning to arrive in advanced manufacturing fabs.
SEMATECH’s focus is on resolving the few remaining manufacturability
issues, such as coating durability. An additional program will determine
the extensibility of 193 nm immersion to 45 nm half-pitch and beyond.
— Mask Infrastructure is critical to improving the capabilities and
reducing the overall cost of photomasks for both 193 nm immersion and
extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. SEMATECH’s programs are focused on
developing the tools and technology to ensure the evolution of cost-
effective mask solutions for future lithography generations.
— Resist Strategy includes determining the practical and theoretical
limits of chemically amplified resist platforms on developing new materials
approaches for 193 nm immersion; and emphasizing ultimate resolution, line
edge roughness (LER) and sensitivity for EUV resists. SEMATECH recently
sponsored workshops in resist limitations and line edge roughness as part
of the 2005 SEMATECH Knowledge Series, a collection of single-focus
industry meetings designed to increase global knowledge in key areas of
semiconductor R&D.
— EUV Infrastructure includes the development of critical technology
components to enable the introduction of extreme ultraviolet lithography
into manufacturing later in the decade. SEMATECH will continue to focus on
assessing the status and developing solutions for defect free mask blanks,
EUV sources, optics lifetime, mask handling and photoresists.
Front End Processes
— Advanced Gate Stack, involving development of high-k dielectrics for
logic and memory products, metal gate electrodes, dual workfunction metal
gate transistor processes, and various electrical characterization methods
for metal/high-k devices. The Advanced Gate Stack (AGS) Program focuses on
delivering reliable gate stack technology for the 45 nm node and beyond. To
support this effort on an industry-wide basis, SEMATECH’s AGS Program will
host its Second International Workshop on Advanced Gate Stack Technology,
Sept. 26-27 at the Omni Hotel in downtown Austin.
— Non-classical CMOS, an approach to the challenges posed by
increasingly microscopic scaling of chip features. Non-classical CMOS
includes infrastructure development for alternative device technologies,
such as strained silicon, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) double-gate metal-
oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and multi-gate FETs
(MuGFETs).
— Planar Bulk Transistor Scaling, which will cover the development of
technologies to enable the continuation of conventional MOSFET scaling for
as long as possible. Potential solutions include channel material
engineering (GeOI, III-V channel, hybrid silicon); advanced strain
engineering; new doping and annealing approaches; and metallic junctions.
SEMATECH’s AMRC university partners will contribute significantly to this
work.
Interconnect
— Low-k Dielectrics and Process Compatibility. Low-k is critical to
advanced semiconductor manufacturing because it reduces line-line
capacitive coupling and allows metal lines to be packed closer together on
a chip, with less risk of electrical signal leakage. After identifying and
screening a number of new low-k materials, SEMATECH engineers are
evaluating two low-k candidates in two-level metal integration work that
have the potential to advance k-effective to 2.5 for the 45 nm technology
node. Additionally, SEMATECH technologists will work to understand and
address the resistivity rise in narrow copper lines, and the development of
advanced barrier and fill solutions.
Manufacturing
— Metrology, a critical enabler to the achievement of increasing device
densities and decreasing feature sizes on advanced semiconductors.
Metrologists at SEMATECH will evaluate commercially available metrology
tools for critical dimension scanning electron microscopy (CD-SEM), optical
critical dimension (OCD) and overlay, and commercial defect inspection and
redetection tools, for the 45 nm technology node and beyond. This work will
free SEMATECH member companies from having to do such benchmarking on their
own.
— Manufacturing Effectiveness and Productivity, a series of factory –
and equipment-related projects aimed at improving both equipment and
overall factory productivity, and reducing costs in today’s and tomorrow’s
fabs. These projects include e-manufacturing; advanced equipment and
process control; advanced equipment software testing; short cycle time and
short ramp-ups; equipment and fab agility; and standards development.
Progress in these areas will be featured at the ISMI Symposium on
Manufacturing Effectiveness (sponsored by the International SEMATECH
Manufacturing Initiative) Oct. 24-27 in Austin.
Environment, Safety and Health
As a cross-cut priority for each of the Top Challenges, ESH addresses issues emerging from the introduction of new materials and process chemicals into advanced manufacturing. SEMATECH ESH engineers are focusing on timely assessments of the potential impacts of new materials and processes; industry response to growth of environmental regulations; ergonomic issues arising from tool complexity and larger wafer sizes; and resource conservation, especially in the area of tool energy consumption.
“SEMATECH remains committed to finding cost-effective and manufacturable solutions to all of these challenges,” said Polcari. “In doing so, we will continue to deliver value to our members while accelerating the next technology revolution for the semiconductor industry.”