Electronic Buyers' News
December 06, 1999, Issue: 1189
Section: News
Chip makers accelerate transition to copper
Mark LaPedus and Macabe Keliher
techweb.com
Several chip makers and wafer foundries are making a strong bid to move copper-interconnect technology into the mainstream, with one provider bringing a new-and possibly revolutionary-twist to the table.
At this week's International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C., IBM Microelectronics will introduce what it claims is the first chip technology that combines copper-interconnect technology and silicon germanium (SiGe) on the same device.
Manufactured on a 0.18-micron, CMOS-based process-technology module, IBM's copper/SiGe technology will be incorporated in some of the company's standard chip products. It also will be made available in the future to IBM's foundry customers.
Though the Asian foundries have yet to jump into the emerging SiGe market, they are beginning to ship their first wafers based on the promising copper-interconnect technology.
Also this week, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. will stake its claim as the first pure-play foundry to offer copper-based wafers in volume. And TSMC's two major competitors -- Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. and Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. -- are not far behind.
The foundries will give many chip makers access to the copper technology for the first time, paving the way for a new generation of high-speed but low-power devices.
IBM's copper/SiGe process technology, for example, will enable the development of a wide range of high-end chips for LAN/WAN and wireless applications, according to Bernie Meyerson, director of telecom technologies at IBM Microelectronics, Fishkill, N.Y.
"We're in the manufacturing-qualification stage right now," said Meyerson, who is considered the guru of IBM Micro's patented SiGe technology.
IBM Micro, which won't say when it will deliver its copper/SiGe process to the merchant-chip and foundry business, said the technology is founded on its new 0.18-micron, SiGe-based process, which features 90-GHz cutoff rates. The company's copper process is a six-layer technology.
SiGe itself is an enhanced BiCMOS technology that promises to offer the performance of gallium arsenide at the low-power levels of CMOS. Meanwhile, copper provides faster access times and other benefits over aluminum, the mainstream interconnect technology.
IBM Micro has been shipping both SiGe and copper-interconnect technology for years, but its foundry competitors in Asia are in various stages of shipping copper-based wafers.
"IBM is still ahead in terms of being able to offer copper at all layers," said analyst Joanne Itow of Semico Research Corp., Phoenix. "It sounds like TSMC has more customers in the development stages."
Still, the market for copper-interconnect technologies remains embryonic, according to Itow. "The cost of implementing a copper process is supposed to come down, but until it does, customers are not really pushing for it," she said. "I think it will certainly become more mainstream with 0.13-micron processes."
Making good on its earlier promise to offer the technology, Taiwan's TSMC this week will announce the first commercially available copper-interconnect process technology from a pure-play foundry.
Based on 0.18-micron feature sizes, TSMC's copper-based technology is currently available in the form of a two-layer process, and will be available in a six-layer implementation down the road, according to Sheldon Wu, senior director of field technology at the company's U.S. subsidiary in San Jose.
Initially, TSMC will produce 10,000 copper-based wafers, with plans to move into larger-scale production by the second half of 2000, Wu said.
UMC is ramping copper-interconnect technology in its new fabs, said Peter Chang, chief executive of foundry operations at the Hsinchu-based company. Right now, UMC's new 8C fabrication facility is doing pilot runs with copper-interconnect technology at 0.25-micron geometries, with volume production slated for early next year, Chang said. |
