Samsung Advances To Gigabit Technology
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 9/1/1998
S
amsung Electronics has secured 0.13 µm processing technology in a further step
toward having gigabit chips as early as 2002, three to four years ahead
of schedule. The technology includes photo and etching processes, a
high-function, transistor-making process and a three-layer metal wiring
process. A single 4Gb DRAM chip will contain four billion bits of
information, or 32,000 standard newspaper pages on an area the size of a
thumbnail.
The new technology is expected to contribute to cost reductions of the
lower-capacity DRAMs. With the ultra-micro technology, Samsung will be
able to build 30% more circuits than the 0.18 µm processing technology
for 1Gb DRAMs. Already the company has already employed the new
linewidth technology in its 16Mb DRAM production, where fully working
semiconductors with the 0.13 µm circuitry have been produced
successfully. Since current 16Mb DRAMs use 0.35 µm technology, a
potential productivity enhancement of 3X more chips per wafer may be
achieved with the 0.13 µm technology. 
