AMD Announces Technology to Enable Ten-fold Performance Leap in Future Transistors
World's Smallest Version of Innovative Design Can Foster Better Products and Lower Manufacturing Costs
Tuesday September 10, 12:05 am ET
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 10, 2002-- AMD (NYSE: AMD - News) today announced it has fabricated the smallest double-gate transistors reported to date using industry standard technology. These transistors, measuring ten nanometers, or ten billionths of a meter in length (gate), are six times smaller than the smallest transistors currently in production. AMD's research breakthrough could foster the placement of a billion transistors on the same size chip that currently holds 100 million transistors, enabling a vastly richer computing experience.
Transistors are the miniscule on/off switches that make up the integrated circuits in today's microprocessors. A double-gate transistor structure effectively doubles the electrical current that can be sent through a given transistor. The Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) design relies upon a thin vertical silicon "fin" to help control leakage of current through the transistor when it is in the "off" stage. This design combination allows for the creation of new chips with enhanced performance and ever-shrinking geometries.
"Transistor development is essential to the creation of higher-performing products for our customers," said Craig Sander, AMD's vice president of Technology Development. "The entire semiconductor industry is working to meet the increasing challenges of developing new transistor designs that are smaller and higher-performing and yet can be manufactured with minimal deviation from today's industry standard manufacturing processes. The FinFET transistor indicates we can continue to deliver very high performance products while preserving the basic technology infrastructure our industry relies upon."
AMD's laboratory demonstration of ten nanometer Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Fin Field Effect Transistor (CMOS FinFET) is the outcome of collaborative research between AMD and the University of California, Berkeley with support from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). The devices were fabricated in AMD's Submicron Development Center.
"The superior leakage control characteristics make FinFET transistors an attractive candidate for future nano-scale CMOS generations, which are expected to be in manufacturing within the next decade," said Dr. Tsu-Jae King, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at U.C. Berkeley. "The FinFET device characteristics indicate strong potential for extending the scalability of CMOS technology."
AMD and the University of California will present the paper, titled "FinFET Scaling to 10 nm Gate Length" at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, December 9-11, 2002.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE: AMD - News).
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