Chip Architect: Intel and Motorola/AMD's 130 nm processes to be revealed.

November 7, 2000: Intel's and Motorola/AMD's 130 nm processes to be revealed.

Intel's and Motorola/AMD's 130 nm processes to be revealed.

Two consecutive presentations during this years International Electron Device Meeting in San Francisco on December 12 will reveal details about the next generation 130 nm processes that Intel and AMD plan to use to continue their ongoing micro-processor speed race. AMD will jointly present their co-developed 130 nm process with Motorola. AMD and Motorola will use ASML's 248 nm lithography tools which means that AMD should be able to ramp up volume production well before Intel which will use SVLG's 193 nm scanners. The Intel process looks more aggressive on the design rules while AMD and Motorola are out in front in terms of interconnect. Motorola/AMD's use of a low k (<3.0) dielectric used to isolate the wires comes as a real surprise. IBM was until now the only one to apply such a low k-dielectric (Silk, k=3.0) which should decrease wire delays in a similar way as copper does. The question is if AMD will use this option from the start or begin with the more conservative FSG (fluorosilicate glass) method that uses basically fluor doped SiO₂. The use of a real low-k dielectric was the third major break-through for IBM after copper and SOI. The big mystery around AMD is where SOI fits in. This combined Motorola/ AMD presentation shows the close cooperation between the two. Motorola recently disclosed how it developed the SOI G4+ PowerPC processor (codenamed Apollo) during this years Micro processor Forum and an SOI AMD processor may be closer then held possible only a few months ago although I would not expect anything before H2 2001.

Update: Intel has now announced that the gate oxide for the fast transistors will be a mere 1.5 nm! The small 2.45 um2 SRAM cell size will shrink even further to 2.09 square micron. This is 2.7 times smaller as the current SRAM cells used in the PIII and P4. The overall speed of the 130 nm process will be 65% faster then that of the current 180 nm process! The 'vote' is still out what the Motorola/AMD SRAM cell size concerns but we expect it to be even smaller then the future 2.09 square micron from Intel based on previous Motorola processes and the use of local interconnect. http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/cn110700.htm

Update: (Nov 9th) AMD has now announced that it will use an SOI process in H2 2001 ! The use of an insulator underneath the Si transistors (Silicon On Insulator) provides a frequency improvement of 22-30% and is therefore twice as significant for the processor performance as the addition of copper wires. The addition of a low K dielectric (k<3.0) would further increase this to 30-38%.

	Intel P860	Moto/AMD HiP7
process rules	130 nm	130 nm
process type	bulk CMOS	bulk CMOS SOI (H2 2001)
effective gate length	70 nm	80 nm
gate-oxide (fast and medium speed transistors)	1.5 nm (fast) 2.4 nm (medium)	1.8 nm (fast) 2.5 nm (medium)
interconnect	copper up to 6 layers	copper up to 9 layers
dielectric	FSG (k=3.6)	FSG (k=3.7) HSQ/Silk?? (k<3.0)
SRAM cell size	2.45 / 2.09 um2	???

IEDM 2000 program
http://www.his.com/~iedm/techprogram/index.html
See section 23

Intels' 130 nm process

Intel Developers Forum, Fall 2000. from www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc

IEDM, San Francisco, Tuesday, December 12, 3:10 p.m.

23.3 A 130nm Generation Logic Technology Featuring 70nm Transistors, Dual VT Transistors and 6 layers of Cu Interconnects, S. Yang, P. Bai, T. Bramblett, B. Crew, M. Hussein, P. Jacob, C. Kenyon, B. Mcintyre, P. Moon, S. Sivakumar, B. Tufts, S. Thompson, S. Tyagi and M. Bohr, Intel Corporation

A leading edge 130nm technology with 6 layers of Cu interconnects for high performance dense logic is presented. Aggressive design rules and unlanded contacts offer a 2.45um2 6-T SRAM cell using 248nm lithography. A highly manufactorable 2.4nm electrical gate oxide with dielectric time to fail that meets the requirements for 1.2V operation including tolerances is presented. Dual threshold voltage devices are offered to maximize product performance at acceptable product standby current.

Further information from semiconductor international, Peter Singer, editor in chief.
http://www.semiconductor-intl.com/semiconductor/issues/issues/2000/200011/six001107wp.asp
"Intel will take the wraps off a 130 nm technology featuring 70 nm transistors and six layers of copper interconnects with FSG (k=3.6) interlevel dielectric. Process highlights include shallow trench isolation, retrograde wells, shallow abrupt extensions, halo implants, deep source/drains and cobalt
salicidation. The result is n- and p-channel low threshold voltage devices with 15% higher saturation
drive currents and 10 times higher off-state leakage. "Highly manufacturable" gate oxides are 2.4 nm
thick."

Motorola / AMD 130 nm process

IEDM, San Francisco, Tuesday, December 12, 3:35 p.m.

23.4 A Versatile 0.13 µm CMOS Platform Technology Supporting High Performance and Low Power Applications, A.H. Perera, B. Smith, N. Cave, M. Sureddin, S. Chheda, R. Singh, M. Celik, S.-C. Song, D. Wu, A. Sultan, J. Chang, R. Islam, K.C. Yu, R. Fox, S. Park, F. Tolic, C. Simpson, S. Crown, D. Eades, S. Gonzales, S. Venkatesan, V. Kolagunta, C. Nelson, J. Sturtevant, D. Bonser, N. Benavides, M. Kling, M. Thompson, V. Sheth, J. Fretwell, S. Kim, N. Ramani, K. Green, D. Pham, M. Moosa, P. Besser, Y. Solomentsev, D. Denning, M. Friedemann, B. Baker, R. Chowdhury, R. Mikkola, S. Ufmani, K. Strozewski, R. Carter, J. Reiss, M. Olivares, B. Ho, T. Lii, T. Sparks, T. Stephens, M. Schaller, C. Goldberg, K. Junker and D. Wristers, Motorola DigitalDNA Laboratories and AMD, Austin, TX

A high performance 0.13 mm CMOS technology has been developed with process modules allowing its usage as a plat-form for a wide range of applications, from GHz microprocessors to low power mobile ICs with non-volatile memory. Three core devices are provided in combination with 50 or 70Å DGO MOS- FETs for the I/Os. Optical enhancement techniques with 248 nm lithography tools provide the patterning capability for gate lengths from 110 to 80 nm. Dual and single inlaid copper metalization allow 9 levels of
interconnect with two dielectric options to tailor speed and performance

Further information from semiconductor international, Peter Singer, editor in chief.
http://www.semiconductor-intl.com/semiconductor/issues/issues/2000/200011/six001107wp.asp
Motorola will report on the development of a new 130 nm CMOS architecture, designed to be a general technology platform for advanced chips. Core devices sport 18 Å gate oxides, while medium-perfor- mance and low-leakage devices employ 25 Å oxides. The peripheral I/O devices support both 2.5 V (50 Å) and 3.3 V (70 Å) interfaces. Gate lengths range from 110 to 80 nm. Optical enhancement techniques — phase shift and OPC — enable the use of standard 248 nm lithography. The interconnect technology integrates copper (up to nine levels) with one of two low-k dielectric options (Figure). The first option uses FSG dielectrics with an integrated k value of 3.7; the second, more advanced option uses an unnamed low-k dielectric with an integrated k value below 3.0.

HOME

***