(OT) Hitachi, LSI Logic to jointly develop 0.13-micron technology
eetimes.com
By Anthony Cataldo
EE Times
(10/13/99, 10:31 a.m. EDT)
TOKYO — Hitachi Ltd. and LSI Logic Corp. have announced that they
will co-develop 0.13-micron process technology as well as a new device
architecture for 0.10-micron transistors. As part of the agreement, LSI
Logic will also use Hitachi as a foundry to produce standard and custom
devices with embedded DRAM starting in the second quarter of next year.
The technology partnership calls for the two companies to exchange and
co-develop 0.10-micron transistors, copper and low-k interconnects,
advanced lithography, as well as explore the use of e-beam as a means of
making prototypes for deep-submicron devices. The companies, which will
divide the task among their respective R&D centers in the United States
and Japan, hope to bring on-stream a common 0.13-micron process
technology based on their joint development work in the next 18 months.
At a press conference here, executives of the two companies said the costs
and technical hurdles of developing new materials and reliable processing
techniques for the 0.13-micron generation and beyond are becoming so
prohibitive that few companies can afford to go it alone.
While a company like Intel Corp. can develop the process technology and
new lithography masks itself for a few products and then quickly amortize
the cost by shipping in huge volumes, LSI Logic doesn't have that luxury.
"In our case we do hundreds of designs per year, and we're not using one
reticle set," said Joe Zelayeta, executive vice president of worldwide
operations for LSI Logic (Milpitas, Calif.).
While the deal is far-reaching from a technology point of view, the two
companies limited its scope to so-called "pre-competitive" technologies. It
will not include any exchange of intellectual property, joint product
development or sharing of common design methodologies. No money will
be exchanged.
Both companies said they are a good fit because they have little product
overlap, and they have many complementary technologies they can
exchange. Hitachi, for example, has already been using copper interconnect
in circuits for its mainframes, while LSI Logic has experience with low-k
dielectric interconnects in its current 0.18-micron process technology. The
companies will work to integrate both into their next process technology.
In their development of 0.1-micron transistors, the companies will work
together to develop thin but robust gate dielectric materials, define optical
lithography characteristics, optimize device performance and leakage
current, ensure reliability and come up with a new failure analysis
methodology, among other areas.
LSI Logic will also tap Hitachi as a foundry for embedded DRAM, giving it
access to Hitachi's latest 0.2-micron multi-bank embedded DRAM module
produced at Hitachi's fab in Naka, Japan. Several years ago, LSI Logic
had formed a partnership with Micron Technology Inc. to co-develop
embedded DRAM, but those two companies went their separate ways last
year after they determined that the development costs were still to high to
justify what was considered a niche market, said John Daane, executive
vice president of LSI Logic, who oversees communications, computer and
ASIC products.
While embedded DRAM won't be used in all of its products, LSI Logic
projects the market will double in size from $1 billion this year to $2 billion
next year, Daane said. The company considers embedded DRAM another
option that some customers will need, just as some are asking for
embedded programmable logic and analog circuitry, he said.
For Hitachi, the process technology agreement is the latest in a series of
partnerships the company has forged with other semiconductor companies
in recent years. In late 1997, it partnered with STMicroelectronics to
design its next-generation SH-5 architecture, which was recently described
at the Microprocessor Forum. In June, Hitachi and NEC Corp. agreed to
jointly develop 256-Mbit DRAM core technology and to seek ways to share
capacity and co-market their products.
"Development of semiconductor process technology is a huge task," said
Kunio Hasegawa, executive vice president of Hitachi's Semiconductor &
Integrated Circuits group and general manager of the System LSI division.
"It won't be feasible to carry on with development on our own. And since
the industry is changing rapidly, we need to share the burden of risk."
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