SANTA CLARA, Calif. – IBM sketched out its visions of the fab future at the recent
Common Platform Technology Forum, the chip alliance of IBM, Globalfoundries and Samsung. IBM scientists spotlights that double patterning tricks with immersion lithography. Big Blue also showed advances in fully depleted silicon-on-insulator and plans for silicon photonics, nanowires and other new twists ahead on the semiconductor road map. The following pages provide a few excerpts from the talks, starting with lithography.
“Since the 45 nm node we have been on a steady downward path, but [extreme ultraviolet lithography] can bring us back,” said Gary Patton, chief technologist in IBM’s semiconductor research group said, referring to the foil below. “EUV represents “the biggest change in the history of lithography [because] EUV light is extremely hard to work with—it’s absorbed by any material, including reflective lenses and masks,” he added.
Nevertheless, “I believe CMOS scaling will continue, [but] it will require disruptive technologies such as carbon nanotubes and silicon photonics,” he said.
Click on image to enlarge. Next: It's double vision going forward
