Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Freescale Semiconductor
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 07 December 2005
Novel transistor overcomes vertical
challenges
A breakthrough transistor structure overcomes many of the design and manufacturing challenges associated with vertical multigate devices.
Freescale Semiconductor has demonstrated a breakthrough transistor that overcomes many of the design and manufacturing challenges associated with vertical multigate devices The invention, called the inverted T-channel field effect transistor (ITFET), features the industry's first ever combination of vertical and planar thin body structures within a single transistor
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Motorola drives for driver information systems
Motorola is developing a family of microcontrollers for the driver information systems (DIS) market.
MCU and DSP features combine in Flash hybrids
The 56F826 and 56F827 are Motorola's newest Flash-based hybrid controllers.
The technology hastens delivery of a new breed of dramatically smaller, higher performing semiconductors that require less power.
Traditional CMOS devices deploy transistors onto the surface of the silicon in a planar - or horizontal - fashion.
In recent years new device architectures have emerged, featuring vertical transistors that utilise multiple sides of the silicon.
Further reading
DSP56800 design software comes for free
Motorola is offering a complimentary licence of the award-winning Metrowerks CodeWarrior for DSP56800 integrated development environment (IDE) with the purchase of a DSP56800 evaluation module.
Best-in-class claim for new DragonBalls
Motorola claims its two new DragonBall microprocessor products - DragonBall MX1 and DragonBall Super VZ - provide best-in-class handheld performance and battery life.
Long-life Flash rivals EEPROM for microcontrollers
The latest Flash MCUs from Motorola offer typically 100,000 write/erase cycles and 50-year data retention.
Vertical transistors are appealing in part because they reduce leakage and provide higher drive current - functions of having more than one gate to control the device.
Multiple gates pack more computing power into less space and reduce power consumption.
But vertical transistors present fundamental design and manufacturing challenges related to mechanically stability, sublithographic feature sizes and patterning over tall topographies.
By combining the stability and manufacturability of planar devices with the low leakage and other benefits of vertical devices, Freescale's ITFET bridges the debate on planar versus vertical CMOS devices and offers key advantages of both technologies in a single device.
"Only five years ago, the prevailing consensus of the industry held that vertical devices were impractical", said Freescale Chief Technology Officer Claudine Simson.
"Due to Freescale's uncompromising commitment to technology innovation and manufacturing knowhow, many vertical device issues that once were considered insurmountable have now been resolved".
"ITFET represents one of the most innovative and potentially disruptive semiconductor manufacturing advancements since the industry standardised on traditional planar CMOS technology more than 20 years ago".
The ITFET offers better manufacturability than FinFET transistors and other vertical devices.
It also provides significant advantages over planar thin body devices and other vertical multigate designs, including lower current leakage, easier transistor width proportioning, lower parasitic capacitance and increased on-current.
The vertical and planar regions of the ITFET couple to provide enhanced current capability from an increased channel width without increasing chip area.
The unique architecture of the ITFET incorporates silicon in the planar regions below the vertical channels, thereby improving manufacturability by reducing undercut below the vertical channels, reducing parasitic resistance and enhancing the mechanical stability of the vertical channels.
The ITFET device was fabricated using innovative process techniques on 90nm CMOS silicon-on-insulator production equipment at Freescale's Austin Technology and Manufacturing Centre.
Freescale plans to incorporate ITFET technology in a range of high-end devices beginning at the 45nm node and beyond.
The ITFET is Freescale's latest addition to a growing portfolio of multigate technology and related breakthroughs.
The company recently announced multiple independent gate field effect transistor (MIGFET) technology that self-aligns two electrically independent gates across a sub-40nm vertical channel.
• Freescale Semiconductor: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
