Sensors and RF as well as Scaling – IEDM 2011
December 12, 2011 – Washington DC – The International Electron Device Meeting of the IEEE is the premier annual event on the directions in process technology advancement and the future of device scaling. The event has traditionally be the vehicle for promotion and validation of Moore’s law. As process technology is reaching several limits on direct scaling, other technology solutions which are addressing the changing nature of the electronics market are appearing at the conference.
The event reviewed new memory technologies such as RRAM, spintronic and quantum memories, multiple types of magnetic memories, as well as DRAM, SRAM and Flash. The limits on Flash memory were discussed not on the basis of design, but on the relability and devie physics behind the programming and data retention and how to model and control this over the variability aspects of sub 22nm processes. These same memories were reviewed and prototype results shown for 3D devices (FinFETs) that were used to create the core devices.
For the ultrahigh speed technology area, the focus was once again on Graphene. The Graphene is used in the form of carbon nanotubes for lateral interconnect, vertical interconnects and also as the conduction control element in active transistors. IBM once again produced the highest performance epi-graphene gate, using Si3N4 as the gate dielectric device built on and SiC substrate. Operating the device at an output current of 5ma/?m, the device achieved a record cut-off frequency of 280GHz for a 40nm device. The following device image is from Paper 23.8 of the 2011 IEDM transactions and is from IBM.
IBM – Record Setting 280GHz Graphene Device
The new technologies taking stage were related to mobile devices – sensors, MEMS, RF and low power circuits/process technology for CPU, logic, memory and display technology lead the show. These topics dominated the conference with 17 of the 36 session devoted to these new technologies. These devices deal with the opposite of scaling for performance – large area devices for LCD, high precision and sensitivity devices in MEMs and ultra low voltage operation. Penn State Univ and IQE presented a next generation device paper which had very promising results for a Arsenide/Antimonide Tunnel FET with Staggered Hetero-junctions which was shown in operation for 300mV logic applications. These devices are key to developing future mobile devices with extended battery life and high performance computing capability. The following device image is from paper 33.5 of the 2011 IEDM transactions and is from Penn State Univ.
Penn State 300mv Logic Transistors
These new areas of sensors, RF for connectivity and low power processing drove the conference into the theme for their lunch time talk from the Sony CTO of Gaming. He discussed the integration of the sensors and ubiquitous connectivity as the core of the next generation augmented reality and media consumption platforms.
