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Performance improvements in microelectronic integrated circuits (ICs) over the past few decades have, for the most part, been achieved by increasing transistor speed, reducing transistor size, and packing more transistors onto a single chip. Smaller transistors work faster, so ICs have become faster and more complex. An emerging factor that may disrupt this trend is the slowing speed of signal propagation within the chip. Signal delays, caused by the interconnection wiring, increase with each generation of scaling and may soon limit the overall performance of the integrated system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This work presents a process to fabricate Bulk FinFETs with advancements in critical fabrication steps such as the shallow trench oxide recess and the adjustment of the fin height. These steps are accomplished with the adoption of Siconi™ Selective Material Removal (SMR™) in the fabrication flow. FinFETs obtained with this new integration scheme were tested in a co-fabrication process flow proposed to integrate planar CMOS and Bulk FinFETs on the same wafer. Morphological and electrical results indicate perfectly filled trenches, a better fin height control and a Bulk FinFET static performance similar to planar CMOS. The 20nm wide fins are fabricated using 193nm illumination lithography followed by a series of trimming steps during the trench etching, the filling and a fin re-oxidation during the steam densification of the trench filling oxide. Trench depth is 300nm and the electrically active fin height is 40nm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We report on gate patterning development for the 45nm node and beyond. Both poly-Si and different metal gates in combination with medium-k and high-k dielectrics have been defined. Source/drain silicon recess has been characterized for different stacks, yielding optimised processes for all investigated. Using hardmask based etching allowed us to produce sub-20nm poly-Si and metal gates. Implementation of advanced metal gate patterning in already developed multi-gate field effect transistors (MuGFET) devices has been demonstrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]