Fully-depleted transistor technologies, both planar and fin-type, are now in the mainstream for product designs. One of the many interesting topics in the new 3D FinFET technology is the approach to isolation. In this article, key elements that differentiate junction-isolated (bulk) and dielectric-isolated (SOI) FinFET transistors are discussed, encompassing aspects of process integration, device design, …

You saw the video of the STMicroelectronics demo at the recent CES in Las Vegas – the one of the ST-Ericsson 28nm FD-SOI NovaThor L8580, right? It’s billed as a 2.5GHz chip – an industry best, but the video showed it clocking at 2.8GHz. Well now the ST-E & ST folks are saying they can …

The 2013 Common Platform Technology Forum showcased “the latest technological advances being delivered to the world’s leading electronics companies,” so of course SOI-based topics were well-represented. Happily, those of us who weren’t able to get over to Silicon Valley were able to attend “virtually” via a live stream (which is now reposted – click here …

Just Posted: FD-SOI video & white paper. Just as this blog was going online, ST-Ericsson posted an excellent, in-depth white paper; and in partnership with STMicroelectroics, a YouTube video detailing the how’s and why’s of FD-SOI.Here are the links — you really don’t want to miss these: • Multiprocessing in Mobile Platforms: the Marketing and …

What a great start to 2013: at CES in Las Vegas, ST-Ericsson announced the NovaThor™ L8580 ModAp, “the world’s fastest and lowest-power integrated LTE smartphone platform.” This is the one that’s on STMicroelectronics’ 28nm FD-SOI, with sampling set for Q1 2013. And it’s a game changer – for users, for designers, for foundries, and for …

The SOI Industry Consortium is actively engaged in supporting the industry’s transition to fully-depleted (FD) technologies. FD technologies offer: better electrostatics, so you’ve got stronger gate control; and lower channel doping, which enables better SRAMs that can operate stably at lower supply voltages – resulting in power savings of up to 40%. There are two …

If you want to cut through the noise surrounding the choices for 28nm and beyond, an excellent place to start is the SOI Consortium’s Fully Depleted Technology Symposium. As a member of the design and manufacturing communities, this is your chance to see and hear what industry leaders are actually doing. Planar? FinFET? The Consortium’s …

FinFET technology promises continued scaling of CMOS technology via the potential to reduce (deleterious) short- channel effects. Realization of this potential is highly dependent on the ideality of the fin structure and, in particular, the uniformity of fin width and impurity doping. The fin isolation technology has a strong impact on within-fin uniformity and variability, …

To drive the competitiveness of PCs, smartphones and other leading-edge devices, the electronics industry has relied for decades on the continued miniaturization of the multitude of transistors integrated in the chips at the heart of those products. However, at the tiny dimensions transistors are reaching today, conventional technology is becoming ineffective to satisfactorily combine higher …

Cadence announced the tapeout of a 14nm test-chip featuring an ARM Cortex®-M0 processor implemented using IBM’s SOI FinFET process technology. Leveraging Cadence tools and SOI’s built-in di-electric isolation for the ARM processor, SRAM memory and other blocks, a goal of the test-chip is to validate characterization data for FinFET-based ARM Artisan® physical IP.