TI increases involvement in sub-45nm CMOS research

Expanding its 12-year relationship with IMEC, Texas Instruments is set to become a core member of the sub-45nm CMOS research programme.

Expanding its 12-year relationship with IMEC, Texas Instruments is set to become a core member of the sub-45nm CMOS research programme.

The move to core membership grows the total number of programmes in which TI will participate and provides TI with access to IMEC's new 300mm research facility inaugurated last week.

"As committed as TI is to developing its own process technology and manufacturing infrastructure, it is critical to take a broad look at all the options before choosing where to invest our internal development resources", said Hans Stork, Texas Instruments' Chief Technology Officer.

"IMEC has delivered significant value as an organisation dedicated to precompetitive research programmes for its contributors".

Since 1992 when TI first became an industrial affiliate member of IMEC to share in wafer cleaning and surface preparation research, TI has joined a number of programmes to expand its knowledge base in critical areas of semiconductor manufacturing.

Areas of IMEC research of primary interest to TI include lithography, high-k gate dielectrics, strained silicon and copper/low-k interconnect programmes.

As a core member, the number of programmes available to TI grows to seven from the four affiliate programmes previously supported by TI and will result in an increase of the total number of TI full-time assignees working at IMEC.

Research programmes available in sub-45nm CMOS to TI as a core member include: advanced lithography (currently focused on liquid immersion 193nm lithography); device implementation of high-mobility layers and advanced source/drain engineering solutions; device implementation of high-k dielectrics and metal gates; nonplanar CMOS devices; advanced interconnect solutions; and cleaning, contamination control and surface preparation for sub-45nm process technologies.

"We are pleased that our successful long-term relationship with Texas Instruments now results in this core member agreement", said Prof Gilbert Declerck, President and CEO of IMEC.

"Based on our excellent experience with Texas Instruments, we are looking forward to extending our collaboration to include the broad set of our sub-45nm silicon research programmes and 300mm research facility".

Created in 2003, IMEC's centralised research platform allows companies to tackle the challenges of CMOS scaling below the 45nm node by collaborating during the research phase.

With the addition of TI, the seven core members will continue work in IMEC's state-of-the-art facility and gain the benefits of reducing individual risk and costs while obtaining results more quickly by working together.

The IMEC research platform comprises leading international IC manufacturers, as well as material and equipment suppliers, working jointly on advanced process module and device research.

Together the companies target technology generations two to three nodes ahead of today's state-of-the-art IC production.

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