TI Makes Super-Chip with Cu and Low-k Dielectric
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 2/1/1998
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TI Makes Super-Chip with Cu and Low-k Dielectric
In a first, Texas Instruments (TI) researchers in Dallas, Texas, have demonstrated the successful combination of copper (Cu) wiring with an insulating material called Xerogel in an IC. This breakthrough approach to manufacturing chips will lead to DSPs and microprocessors at least 10 times faster, which use much less power than today's most powerful chips. TI expects that the combination of Cu with an ultralow-k dielectric material like Xerogel will offer the highest performance alternative for future generations of semiconductor chips within the next decade. The TI technology offers a solution to the interconnect problem by allowing electrical signals to flow more freely throughout a chip, reducing troublesome electrical resistance and capacitance effects. Xerogel is a material made of microscopic glass bubbles containing air and has the lowest dielectric constant known. According to TI, while lowering resistance using Cu solves a near-term problem, the capacitance effect is a critical challenge affecting chip performance, power and operating voltage. This will ultimately be limited by the interconnect. Next-generation microprocessors and DSPs using this technology will incorporate 0.10 µm linewidths with more than 500 million transistors. AB
Semiconductor International / February 1998
