June 10, 2005 – ATDF, a technology R&D center for the semiconductor industry, has been selected by Acorn Technologies Inc., to fabricate its proprietary, patented metal insulator source/drain transistor technology, called XMOS, for advanced ICs. These transistors replace the traditional doped silicon junctions with passivated metal-silicon interfaces (Schottky junctions).

Under a recently signed agreement, ATDF, a wholly owned subsidiary of SEMATECH, will fabricate prototype field-effect transistors (FETs) using Acorn’s XMOS technology in place of source/drain diffused junctions. A significant advantage of these devices is their potential to scale to very small feature sizes, enabling the continuation of Moore’s law well beyond the limitations of conventional doping techniques.

For Acorn, the advantage of working with ATDF is that it operates an advanced industrial quality fab capable of producing semiconductor chips that meet the SIA 65 nanometer node and smaller. It is used by SEMATECH’s members and other companies to develop new state-of-the-art semiconductor devices and chips.

Using full-flow transistor processing, ATDF engineers and technicians will work toward fabricating the Acorn devices through a series of graduated milestones. The project will take approximately seven months to develop new process technology and device integration to realize functioning XMOS transistors.