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INDUSTRY BUZZ

Breakthrough SOI News at VLSI Symposia

• Intel presented A Scaled Floating Body Cell (FBC) Memory with
  High-k+Metal Gate on Thin-Silicon and Thin-BOX for 16-nm Technology Node and Beyond. The company said its SOI-based FBC memory cell is the smallest ever reported, and has the lowest operating voltage. It is predicted to be feasible through the 11nm node.
• Hitachi and Renesas presented Smallest V_th Variability by Intrinsic Silicon on Thin BOX (SOTB) CMOS with Single Metal Gate. Solving threshold voltage (V_th) variability eliminates a major obstacle for nodes beyond 45nm. The companies predict this will enable SOTB to run through the end of the device miniaturization era.

Nanopump™ (Courtesy: Debiotech)

• STMicroelectronics and Debiotech have introduced first evaluation prototypes of a disposable, SOI-MEMS based insulin-delivery Nanopump. It can be mounted on a skin patch to provide continuous insulin infusion for diabetes patients

• IBM:

• IBM has licensed the multi-protocol SerDes cell from Rambus for high-performance and low-power 45nm SOI.

• For the most challenging arithmetic operations, IBM’s new PowerXCell™ 8i (65nm SOI) offers five-times the speed of the original Cell/B.E. processor.

“Roadrunner” (Courtesy: IBM)

• The “Roadrunner” supercomputer at Los Alamos shot to #1 on the TOP500™ Supercomputer list with sustained performance of 1.02 petaflops (1.02 quadrillion calculations per second). Its 12,240 SOI-based IBM PowerXCell 8i processors crunch the numbers, while 6,562 SOI-based AMD Opteron™ Dual-Core processors handle the basic computing

• Mentor Graphics advanced lithography tools, which are accelerated with an SOI-based Cell/B.E. cluster from Mercury Computer Systems, are now IBM qualified for production of 45nm Cells.

• AMD (which builds all its 64-bit microprocessors on SOI):

• An AMD spokesperson has confirmed that the first Fusion (CPU/GPU) chip, designed by a worldwide team, is on SOI and will be manufactured in Dresden.

• The new Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile doubled notebook
design wins.

• At the China Auto Electronics show, Atmel announced driver ICs in BCD-on-SOI that enable engine-mounted electronics for control of small motors or valves.

• SOI photonics:

• As part of the EU’s Circles of Light program, AMO and RWTH Aachen presented the first Si photonic ring resonator on SOI fabricated with Soft UV-Nanoimprint Lithography (UV-NIL).

• The goal of BOOM, a new EU project, is to develop a new generation of SOI-based photonic components.

• Japan’s SELETE consortium has announced advances in SOI-based optical components, which are expected to eventually replace copper interconnects in LSIs.

• Developed under the US DOE’s Deep Trek Program, Honeywell Aerospace’ new SOI-based HTOP01 is designed for both jet engine instrumentation and control, as well as the oil industry’s deep drilling operations.
• Oki Semiconductor, which is being spun off to Rohm, says the change will enable the company to offer new SOI-based products.
• According to a spokesperson, the Cell processor that will be produced by Toshiba for availability in 2009 will be on SOI. One of the first applications is expected to be in TVs.
• Two new Semico studies consider SOI: Front End Integration in Wireless Networking Applications and Polysilicon and Silicon Wafer Industry Study: Avoiding the Sun Burn.
• A new report from Yole Développement, Thick-SOI Applications, Markets & Players, 2006-2012, says MEMS is boosting wafer demand.

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