We all know that the
keystone of the semiconductor
business
is a steady stream of
ground-breaking technology
developments. This keystone often
carries the business through commercial
highs and lows. After all,
it’s an industry that’s often at the
mercy of market forces, and these
capricious influences have been
highlighted by one recent news
event: Freescale is seriously thinking
about closing its facility in
East Kilbride, Scotland—if it is
unable to sell it.
However, in contrast to that
dour situation comes the heartening
announcement that
Europe’s PULLNANO
Consortium made some extremely
interesting technical breakthroughs
in its 32nm and 22nm
CMOS work. The group managed
to create a functional
CMOS SRAM demonstrator
using 32nm design techniques.
What’s important here is that
functional SRAM uses special
MOS transistors. The architecture
of these devices has several
key differences versus transistors
normally used in the 45nm technology
area. The transistors are
built using a low power consumption
approach based on
FDSoI (fully depleted silicon on
insulator), and this is coupled
with a gate stack composed of a
high-K gate dielectric and a single
metal electrode stack.
Other interesting developments
from this European Consortium
concern modeling and simulation,
relating to the prediction of
device performance for 32nm
and 22nm CMOS technologies.
One new simulation method
enables the evaluation, prior to
fabrication, of the impact of
technology options like the
channel material and choice of
high-k dielectric. So, there’s no
doubt that, technically, the
future for the semiconductor
industry looks strong.
Then what’s gone wrong for
Freescale in Scotland? Following
the purchase of Freescale via a
private equity funding deal, the
company has experienced
reduced revenues. This may be
making it hard for Freescale to
fund the debt held by the private
equity firm involved in its acquisition.
The result may inevitably
lead to closure or sale.
Fortunately for the industry as
a whole, there’s always the
reassuring constant that technology
advances will always counterbalance
the short-term glitches
spawned by inevitable commercial
pressures.