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SEMATECH starts germanium evaluation to replace silicon |
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Mar 09, 2006 at 03:41 PM |
 Silicon is reaching the end of the road according to SEMATECH member companies after a meeting with researchers late last year that kicked off research to narrow down the materials that would one day replace silicon.
"The workshop identified four or five material combinations and these were referred to participating universities for long-term work," Hsing-Huang Tseng, a Freescale assignee and manager of FEP's new CMOS Extension Program. "But continued CMOS scaling means we need to find new materials to replace silicon in these functions. Germanium and silicon‑germanium, and potentially III-V compounds in the longer term, could provide even bigger benefits for mobility enhancement," stated Tseng.
The new project in SEMATECH's Front End Processes (FEP) division is being seen as a key endeavor for the industry and will concentrate on the complete integration schemes that will be required while also tackling defect issues that have long been associated with Ge.
"Our goal is not to replace silicon entirely, but to apply higher-mobility channel materials selectively on tried and trusted silicon-based technology for continued CMOS scaling, stated Raj Jammy, SEMATECH's FEP director. "This will require not only developing processing techniques to put down alternate channel materials on silicon with low defect densities, but also to develop techniques to form compatible source-drain junctions and gate stacks."
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