Strained SOI on the move to mainstream

Strained SOI on the move to mainstream
By George Celler, EE Times
December 22, 2003 (11:32 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20031222S0024

Some industry observers have concluded that strained silicon on bulk silicon trumps strained silicon on insulator (SOI). Nothing could be further from the truth. The industry road map calls for strained silicon on a silicon germanium template layer on insulator at the 65-nanometer node in 2007 and strained silicon directly on insulator at the 45-nm node, which means that a material supply has to be ready in 2004-05. As always, business strategy dictates the best time of adoption for technology innovations by individual companies.

When you look at the industry, there are those IC makers that stay on top by staying on the leading edge of new technologies. These companies have been the early adopters of SOI, either at 180 or 130 nm. They clearly recognize the advantages of building circuits in silicon over an insulating layer, with higher performance and lower power consumption being the most visible advantages.

For these companies, moving to strained silicon at the 65-nm node will give them faster chips, and the transition will be a relatively simple one. It will also be cost-effective, since they have already made the necessary investments in adapting their circuit design and fabrication processes to the SOI environment.

On the other hand, some companies stay on top by focusing on manufacturing excellence, introducing new technologies in small increments that enable them to maintain their sales margins. They only move to a new technology when it is relatively mature and commensurately cost-effective. However, these companies know-and have said as much-that they will need to move to engineered substrates such as strained silicon on insulator by the 45-nm node.

Insulator advantages

The advantage of strained silicon lies in its electrical properties. The crystalline lattice of the top, electrically active layer of silicon is strained so that electric charges (electrons and holes) flow faster. For example, 1 percen t strain achieved by epitaxial growth of silicon on relaxed SiGe with 25 percent germanium content approximately doubles the electron mobility, with a lesser improvement for the holes. The result is at least a 20 to 30 percent increase in circuit performance: A speed enhancement of more than 60 percent in simple CMOS circuits was reported.

In the strained-silicon-on-insulator scenario, a layer of insulation is created between the active, strained-silicon cap layer and the bulk-silicon substrate. Like their SOI cousins, strained-silicon chips built on insulator function at significantly higher speeds-as much as 30 percent more-than those built on strained silicon without the insulating layer. This results in an increase of 60 to 70 percent compared with conventional silicon without strain. Furthermore, the insulating layer reduces electrical losses, resulting in a reduction in power consumption of two to three times that of strained-silicon chips built on bulk silicon.

Chips built on wafers wi th a layer of insulator consist of millions of islands with transistors, each isolated from the other islands and from the bulk-silicon substrate below. The separation of the transistors from each other simplifies circuit design, since the designer doesn't have to devise complex schemes for trench or well formation. Furthermore, the insulating layer protects the active layer of strained silicon from the parasitic effects of the bulk-silicon base. Taken together, these two factors facilitate more-compact VLSI chips and easier CMOS process integration for nodes of 65 nm and beyond.

Performance gains with the insulating layer are largely the result of faster transistor switching. If an insulating layer separates the active cap of strained silicon from the bulk-silicon substrate, large-area p-n junctions are replaced by dielectric isolation. The source and drain regions extend down to the buried oxide, reducing the leakage current and junction capacitance. This enables IC makers to fabricate CMOS circuit s that dissipate less power in both standby and operating modes. The result is chips that run faster and can operate in a wider temperature range.

Strained silicon-on-insulator chips are also less vulnerable to short-channel effects than strained-silicon chips built on bulk. Short-channel effects are the result of charge sharing between gates and junctions. The gate's electrical field competes with the fields of the source and drain regions. But when a layer of insulator is introduced so that the source and drain regions extend down to the buried oxide, the short-channel effect is greatly reduced or eliminated.

25 at 65

Scaling is a major issue in future technology nodes. The goal is to make smaller and smaller transistors, passing the 25-nm barrier at the 65-nm technology node. This is a reasonable goal in strained silicon on insulator, but not on bulk. In fact, device scaling into the sub-20-nm physical gate length regime requires an insulating layer.

Given the physical l imits of transistors in bulk silicon, it is clear that the entire high-performance chip industry will eventually be obliged to move to engineered substrates incorporating an insulating layer. Although business decisions will determine the point at which the late adopters of insulated substrates will make the move, in the end, they will do so. It comes down to the laws of physics.

George Celler is chief scientist at Soitec Corp. (Grenoble, France).

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