Industry News
450mm road to nowhere?
THE INFORMATION NETWORK has In 2002, 38.2% of equipment
suggested that companies should purchased by the semiconductor
boycott 450mm development. The manufacturers was for 300mm
planned transition to 450mm silicon production, and 1.4% of silicon wafers
wafers for semiconductor production processed were 300mm in diameter. In
will be disastrous for the equipment 2008, 92.1% of equipment purchased
industry, according to the report was for 300mm production and 37.4%
300mm/Copper/Low-K Convergence: of silicon wafers were 300mm. Within
Timing, Trends, Issues, Market Analysis, that time, semiconductor revenues
published by The Information Network. increased from about $10 billion per
MEMC recently announced planned month at the start of 2002 to $20+
layoffs of 200 employees and a billion in December 2008. In contrast,
speeding up of 450mm diameter wafer equipment bookings started off 2002 at
Issue IV 2009
R&D. MEMC joins a litany of wafer $645 million, reached a peak of $1.8
square4
suppliers and semiconductor billion in June 2006, and ended 2008 at equipment industry has been relatively
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manufacturers pushing for the about $800 million. flat, save for the peaks and valleys
transition. The strategy would enable “Quite a disconnect,” noted Dr. reminiscent of the 90s. Revenues for
semiconductor manufacturers to reduce Robert N. Castellano, President of The wafer manufacturers tended to follow
costs because 2.25 times more chips Information network. “Semiconductor semiconductor sales more closely than
can be made on a 450mm wafer sales took off while equipment sales equipment sales. The dramatic upturn
compared to a 300mm wafer. have remained essentially flat. No in 2006 is largely a result of the high
That same argument was pushed wonder manufacturers and Sematech cost of polysilicon brought about by a
oasiasemiconductor
forth by the semiconductor companies are pushing for 450mm wafers.” shortage on the market due to uptake
.eur
during discussions on the transition After 2001, the industry changed, in other industries. Part of it was also
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from 200mm wafers to 300mm wafers and the semiconductor industry due to the increase in 300mm wafer
about 10 years ago. continued a relentless growth while the production as stated above.
7
Alliance moves to 28nm
IBM, Chartered, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Already working with clients on
Infineon, Samsung, and STMicro have 32nm low power technology, the
defined and are jointly developing a 28 alliance has gained valuable experience
nm, high-k metal gate (HKMG), low in the implementation of HKMG
power bulk complementary metal oxide technology, and is offering a migration
semiconductor (CMOS) process path from 32nm to 28nm technology.
technology. The low power, 28nm “Through this collaboration, IBM
technology platform for producers of a and its alliance partners are helping to
broad range of power sensitive mobile accelerate energy efficient chips at the
and consumer electronics applications. 28nm process level,” said Gary Patton,
The favourable leakage VP for IBM’s Semiconductor Research
characteristics of the HKMG technology and Development Centre.
result in optimized battery life for the Preliminary results working with
next generation of mobile products. early access clients and partners performance, leakage and stability.
This announcement represents an indicate that the 28nm technology Unlike poly/SiON, the HKMG low
extension of existing joint agreements. platform can provide a 40 percent power technology breaks down the
A 28nm low power technology performance improvement and a more historical barrier of scaling, thereby
evaluation kit was previously made than 20 percent reduction in power all lowering development cost. This marks
available in December 2008 to early in a chip that is half the size compared the latest development from this
access clients, followed by release in with 45nm technology. The high-k metal alliance of manufacturing, development
March 2009 of an evaluation kit for gate implementation allows one of the and technology companies who
open access to the general industry’s smallest SRAM cells at 0.120 collaborate to address the design and
marketplace. Early risk production is square microns, with low minimum development challenges central to a
anticipated in the second half of 2010. voltage operation and competitive smaller, faster, cost efficient devices.
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