Materials
Materials will enable the
future of semiconductors
The semiconductor manufacturing industry has used the often mentioned Moore’s
Law as the guide to success in scaling devices and increasing capacity. Scaling has
traditionally being achieved through lithographic techniques and once was a
relatively easy process. The industry has now reached a point where normal optical
means are not enough to achieve the improvements sought. Geoff Irvine, VP of
Business Development at SAFC Hitech discusses the growing importance of
materials and material expertise as the key to continuing semiconductor evolution.
Materials gather pace
20
D
espite the global economic
slowdown seen over the past 18 It’s fair to say that in the past decade, we have
months, semiconductors continue to become seen an exponential increase in the rate of
www
ever more pervasive in everyday life across an development across almost every area of
.eur increasingly wide array of applications. At the technology. Electronics, in particular, has seen an
oasiasemiconductor
leading technology edge, the materials and explosion of growth and diversification. From
chemistries that enable the ongoing evolution of SAFC Hitech’s perspective as a materials
micro and nano electronics across all aspects of supplier, we have seen the pace and extent of
manufacturing have become key areas of focus. new materials exploration and adoption by
New materials are being considered, tested and semiconductor manufacturers also gather pace
developed to enable faster and more compact in step with the electronics market, especially
.com
chips with more advanced features and over the past five or so years.
functionalities, the result being that at every A perfect illustration of this increasing in the
level of high tech manufacturing, materials are speed of evolution is when we consider
square4
Issue VIII 2009
assuming an increasingly important role in deposition materials and the rate of adoption,
innovation. Yet, with so many new electronic and subsequent change, of materials employed
materials coming into play, in such unique for dielectric materials for Metal-Insulator-Metal
quantities and concentrations and often with (MIM) capacitors in the manufacture of DRAM
their own unique set of parameters and devices. In this area, we have seen precursor
interactions, there remains a great deal unknown chemistries develop from providing solutions for
in general about the impact of such materials. growing high quality conformal amorphous films
The rise in demand for new, high of Al
2
O
3
to HfO
2
followed by ZrO
2
.
performance materials, allied to a need for These transitions that have occurred in a
deeper materials, engineering process and relatively short space of time compared to
chemistry expertise, has resulted in significant previous technology development stages. This
opportunities for those companies providing the pattern of accelerated pick up and development
materials, specialized chemistries and processes is being repeated across other device areas at
that underpin the semiconductor and compound the gate level, with, for example, the adoption
semiconductor markets. Put simply, new of exotic materials for gate stacks for high-K
materials as enablers and the understanding of metal gate, new electrode materials, and new
new material environments are two key issues barrier and seed layers in Back End Of Line
that go hand in hand. (BEOL) applications.
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