Transistor Structure

TSMC CMOS logic technology relied on planar transistor structures until 2014, when FinFETs were introduced into production with our 16nm technology. The FinFET structure resolved a fundamental limitation of planar device scaling, namely the poor electrostatic control of the channel at short gate lengths. FinFETs also enabled a partial decoupling of the transistor density scaling from device effective width scaling, which is an important feature for attaining increased transistor current per unit footprint of transistors. These FinFET characteristics enabled significant reduction of the power supply voltage as compared to planar transistors. FinFET also presents new degrees of freedom for power performance optimization, which contributed to significant enhancements in energy efficiency from 16nm to our most recently introduced 5nm technology node.

TSMC research and development continues to explore next-generation structures such as stacked nanowires or stacked nanosheets in our quest for new heights in computing performance and energy efficiency for future technology nodes.

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31-40 of 73
  • 45nm high-k/metal-gate CMOS technology for GPU/NPU applications with highest PFET performance

    2007
    Highest planar HK/MG PFET performance (I ON = 790 muA at I off = 100 nA, Vdd= 1 V and Lg= 33 nm) has been demonstrated with a gate-first dual-metal CMOS integrated process and proven by functional SRAM cell. Integrating modern stressors without IL re-growth and achieving band edge work function without increasing T INV are two major challenges for gate-first HK/MG processes. In this work, band-edge effective work function has been achieved without increasing T INV . Furthermore, with successful integration of stress techniques like SiGe-S/D, SMT and CESL, not only performance was improved by 30% but also no reliability degradation was observed. Finally, no degradation from decreasing poly-pitch also suggests its good scalability to next generations.
  • A 32nm CMOS low power SoC platform technology for foundry applications with functional high density SRAM

    2007
    For the first time, we present a state-of-the-art 32 nm low power foundry technology integrated with 0.15um 2 6-T high density SRAM, low standby transistors, analog/RF functions and Cu/low-k interconnect for mobile SoC applications. To our knowledge, this is the smallest fully functional 2Mb SRAM test-chip for 32nm node. Low power transistors with Lg of 30nm achieve current drive of 700/380 uA/um at 1.1V and off-leakage current of 1 nA/um for NMOS and PMOS, respectively. An NPoly/NWell MOS varactor shows capacitance ratio of >5.0. The MOM unit capacitance of 3.5 fF/um 2 is achieved with only 4 metal layers.
  • A highly scaled, high performance 45nm bulk logic CMOS technology with 0.242 μm2 SRAM cell

    2007
    A highly scaled, high performance 45 nm CMOS technology utilizing extensive immersion lithography to achieve the industry's highest scaling factor with ELK (k=2.55) BEOL is presented. A record gate density 2.4X higher than that of 65 nm is achieved. Refined strained-CMOS demonstrated 1200/750 μA/μm Idsat at 100 nA/μm Ioff, Vdd=1 V, which has the best Ion-Lg performance reported for bulk CMOS device. The proposed 45 nm technology is not only manufacturing friendly but also has well-controlled leakage and mismatch evidenced by a functional 32 Mb 0.242 μm 2 SRAM.
  • Mobility enhancement and strain integration in advanced CMOS

    2006
    Mobility enhancement techniques have become pervasive in advanced CMOS technologies. Non-scalable and scalable approaches to mobility enhancement are widely used in various application segments (high-speed, low-operating power, and low- standby power). Non-scalable techniques rely on preferential channel directions having fundamentally higher carrier mobility than the conventional <110> directions of (100) substrates. On the other hand, scalable techniques rely on process built-in mechanical strain to boost mobility as a result of band- structure response impacting both carrier-effective mass and scattering rates. Scalable techniques are based on the channel strain induced by contact-etch stop layers or Si(1-x)Ge(x) structures primarily. This paper will review both non-scalable and scalable mobility enhancement approaches from two angles, namely fundamental device physics and overall device integration schemes. The paper will also review and discuss issues related to superposition of process built-in strain for performance enhancement.
  • A new series resistance and mobility extraction method by BSIM model for nano-scale MOSFETs

    2006
    In this work, a simplified BSIM-based model has been proposed to solve the above issues contributed by halo implants [Goto, K, et al., 2003]. In this new methodology, R sd and mu eff can be uniquely extracted in nano-scale devices. Furthermore, the extracted L G dependency of mu eff may serve as a good indicator for monitoring the relationship between geometry and stress parameters
  • HfSiON gate dielectric for 45nm node low-power device

    2006
    A 1.4 nm EOT stack film of HfSiON with interfacial oxide layer (IL) is demonstrated with excellent electrical characteristics and reliability for 45 nm node low-power technology. Mobility comparable to SiON is achieved along with adequate nMOS PBTI lifetime, TDDB lifetime, and breakdown voltage (V BD ). For the first time, we report lower V BD for the HfSiON stack film despite of 3 orders gate leakage reduction compared to the same EOT SiON. It is attributed to IL breakdown in the proposed two-step breakdown mechanism. This possibly limits the scalability of such a stack film. On the other side, over-drivability of HfSiON with thick underlying oxide boosts input/output (I/O) device performance significantly
  • Reproducing subthreshold characteristics of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors under shallow trench isolation mechanical stress using a stress-dependent diffusion model

    2006
    N-channel metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) with a lightly doped well exhibit subthreshold current versus voltage (I–V) characteristics that are sensitive to shallow trench isolation (STI) mechanical stress. Such striking dependencies offer the opportunity to validate a proposed two-dimensional (2D) process model that relates the impurity diffusion to the mechanical stress throughout the substrate. With the assistance of sophisticated process/device simulations, the model appears to satisfactorily reproduce subthreshold I–V characteristics for different active area lengths and different substrate biases. The stress-dependent point defect equilibrium concentration and diffusion model are also implemented to evaluate the stress effect on transient enhanced diffusion.
  • High-Performance PMOS Devices on (110)/<111'> Substrate/Channel with Multiple Stressors

    2006
    A study was performed to investigate the effect of multiple stressors on CMOS devices on (110) and (100) substrates with different channel directions. For the first time, 87% I ON -I OFF improvement is achieved by utilizing SiGe-S/D and compressive contact etch stop layer (c-CESL) for PMOS devices on (110) substrate with lang111'rang channel direction. The improvement is similar to that on conventional (100) substrate with lang110>rangchannel direction and can be explained by piezoresistive coefficients. Record PMOS device performance of I on = 900 muA/mum at I off = 100 nA/mum and V DD = 1.0V for 40nm gate length is demonstrated
  • Reliability of HfSiON as gate dielectric for advanced CMOS technology

    2005
    Optimizing nitrogen incorporation in HfSiON gate dielectric can improve overall reliability, e.g. nMOS PBTI lifetime, hot carrier (HC) lifetime, time-to-breakdown (tBD), without adverse effects on pMOS NBT1 lifetime and electron/hole mobility. The improvement is attributed to excellent thermal stability against partial-crystallization after 1100/spl deg/C annealing, and the concomitantly reduced trap generation minimizes stress induced leakage current (SILC) and flicker noise degradation after PBTI stress. A new methodology is proposed, for the first time, to correctly predict HC lifetime of HfSiON nMOS based on electron trapping.
  • Modeling mechanical stress effect on dopant diffusion in scaled MOSFETs

    2005
    The effect of shallow trench isolation mechanical stress on MOSFET dopant diffusion has become significant, and affects device behavior for sub-100-nm technologies. This paper presents a stress-dependent dopant diffusion model and demonstrates its capability to reflect experimental results for a state-of-the-art logic CMOS technology. The proposed stress-dependent dopant diffusion model is shown to successfully reproduce device characteristics covering a wide range of active area sizes, gate lengths, and device operating conditions.
31-40 of 73