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Technology Stocks : CYRIX / NSM

NSM 18.27

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Jul 31 5:00 PM EST

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To: Jim McMannis who wrote (21754)	12/4/1997 5:52:00 PM
From: Pravin Kamdar	Read Replies (1) of 33344

Jim, I'm sure the copper part of the technology is similar for IBM, MOT, and TI. I'm assuming that the new dielectric technology is a separate advancement. If so, TI could use it to speed up regular Al interconnect based circuits. Typically, silicon dioxide (and also silicon nitride) are used as dielectric layers between the various metal levels. Silicon dioxide has a dielectic constant of 3.9 (silicon nitride is 7.5). This basically means that two capacitively coupled interconnect traces (all traces near each other) will be coupled by 3.9 times as much capacitance if separated by silicon dioxide than by free space (or air; roughly). So, if you can make a spacing layer that is made mostly of air bubbles, your capacitive coupling is going to be about as low as it is gonna get; allowing for both higher speed and lower power opperation. So, combining the lower resistivity of copper with the lower capacitance of xerogel, TI will be able to produce faster and lower power chips than either IBM or MOT; all else being equal. Pravin.

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