Logic and memory to unite in .18 feature generation:
Embedded DRAM could restore memory as top technology driver
By Jack Robertson
CHIBA, Japan -- Embedded DRAMs may again make memory chips the major
technology driver for semiconductors, retaking the lead from logic devices, according to a research manager with Toshiba Corp. Speaking before a technical session at the Semicon Japan equipment conference here today.
Embedded DRAMs are becoming so complex in design and processing that the new systems-on-chips will restore memory as a key technology driver for device companies, predicted Akihiro Nitayama, research program manager at the Toshiba Microelectronics Engineering Laboratory.
"The difference between MOSFETs for embedded DRAMs and for logic are getting close," he said. "With this trend it makes sense to develop DRAM processes and logic processes at the same time on the chip."
Currently, DRAMs and microprocessors are separately driving IC technology, according to the new U.S. industry roadmap released by the Semiconductor Industry Association in San Jose (see Dec. 1 story on the 1997 semiconductor roadmap).
Nitayama said in the future the disparity between memory processing and logic processing on the same chip will be replaced by a single process for both functions. He said this will especially be true for system-level ICs, starting with the 0.18-micron feature size generation.
Panelists at the SEMI Semicon Japan session agreed that 1-Gbit DRAM generations and beyond will require new barium-strotium-titanate (BST) material for chip capacitors. However, Shozo Nishimoto, program engineer at NEC Corp. Thin Film Process Development Laboratory, said many technical issues still remain to be solved, including contact resistance, oxidaton and designing a contamination-free processing. |
