MANHASSET, NY -- Industry consortium Sematech announced that centrotherm thermal solutions has joined its Front End Processes (FEP) program to develop new low-temperature processing techniques for devices in sub 14nm technology nodes.
centrotherm will collaborate with Sematech’s FEP research team to develop plasma-based low temperature techniques using Sematech test structures.
The goal is to demonstrate how low-temperature processing techniques apply in high performance logic transistors and memory devices at sub-14nm advanced technology nodes.
The Blaubeuren, Germany subsidiary of centrotherm photovoltaics AG is a developer of process tools and high tech production systems for the manufacture of semiconductor components.
New materials and new device concepts necessitate lower thermal budget process flows for continued scaling. In high mobility semiconductors low temperature processes are critical to preserve the beneficial properties of channel materials of transistors.
Similarly, advanced memory technologies require superior isolation as well as low thermal budget oxidation approaches – especially for metal oxide RRAM devices. Plasma-based processing techniques offer an attractive approach to help realize such low-thermal budget processes to enable the integration of new materials into emerging device technologies, according to Sematech.
"We will work together to develop practical and promising manufacturable solutions to address the emerging needs of the advanced transistor and memory markets,” said Raj Jammy, Sematech’s vice president of emerging technologies, in a statement.
Sematech's FEP program works toward finding solutions for the continued scaling of logic and memory applications.