Soitec announced at Semicon West that it had started commercial production of the sSOI substrate to assist customers such as Freescale Semiconductor and AMD in evaluating its use for volume production applications at the 45nm node and below.
  
"This newest line of SOI substrates targets advanced applications in the network processing, computing, gaming and high-end wireless industries, where speed and ultra-low power are critical issues," said Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve, president and CEO of Soitec. "In addition to enabling chipmakers to further amplify the performance and power advantages of their chips, our new sSOI wafers will serve as an extendible platform for the future."

Soitec reports that customer interest in its new line of sSOI substrates stems primarily from market and technology leaders seeking to dramatically increase electron mobility while reducing gate leakage and power consumption. Additionally, sSOI helps overcome the scaling issues associated with CMOS process-induced strain techniques and opens the door to bandwidth gap tuning.
   
"Strained SOI technology is an excellent example of the types of innovation Freescale is incorporating into their transistor roadmap," stated According to Suresh Venkatesan, director of Austin Silicon Technology Solutions at Freescale Semiconductor While this technology is currently under evaluation for the 45-nm node - initially targeting networking and gaming applications -- it could eventually help Freescale's customers create dramatically smaller and more powerful entertainment electronics and intelligent portable devices," Venkatesan said.
   
Soitec's sSOI substrates will be offered in both 200mm and 300mm wafer sizes.