David Lammers, News Editor -- Semiconductor International, 7/28/2009

GlobalFoundries (Sunnyvale, Calif.) plans to apply embedded silicon carbon (eSiC) stressors on its 22 nm nFET transistors, and is likely to use through-silicon vias (TSVs) to connect a fast SOI-based DRAM layer to a logic die, said John Pellerin, director of technology development at the IBM/GlobalFoundries Alliance in Fishkill, N.Y.

In an interview prior to last week's groundbreaking ceremony for the GlobalFoundries Fab 2 in Malta, N.Y., Pellerin said GlobalFoundries and its Fishkill partners, including Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.), have largely solved the technical challenges of eSiC stressors. By moving to an in situ phosphorous doping scheme for the grown stressor layers, the researchers are able to stabilize the carbon atoms and sharply improve carrier mobility and drive current, he said.

At SEMICON West, Applied Materials touted its role in eSiC development with GlobalFoundries, including a new cleaning module for its deposition tool.

The move to TSVs is built upon IBM's work in developing an embedded DRAM in an SOI substrate. Pellerin said the SOI eDRAM has a fast access time but a relatively short retention time, requiring frequent refresh cycles.

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