Key process steps developed on 300mm wafers show progress in closing the gapbetween the demonstration of a single device and taking the technology tofabrication.
CoolCubeTM is Leti’s sequential integration technology that enables the stacking ofactive layers of transistors in the third dimension. Under development for eightyears, it aims at fully benefiting from the third dimension, and is enabled by cuttingin half the thermal budget in manufacturing transistors, while maintaining theirperformance.
Mobile devices, where minimal power consumption is key, are the primary marketfor chips manufactured with the technology. CoolCubeTM also allows designers toinclude backside imagers in the chips, and co-integration of NEMS in a CMOSfabrication process also is possible.
“CoolCubeTM enables local via density that is 10,000 times higher than ‘standard’3D integration, because the technology is designed to connect stacked activelayers at a nanometric scale,” said Maud Vinet, Leti’s advanced CMOS laboratorymanager. “In the digital area, we expect this 3D technique to allow a gain of 50percent in area and 30 percent in speed compared to the same technologygeneration in classic 2D – gains comparable to those expected in the nextgeneration. In heterogeneous integration, we expect CoolCubeTM to be an actualenabler of smart-sensor arrays by allowing a close integration of sensors,detection electronics and digital signal processing.”
Leti’s team will be in the European Pavilion, South Hall, Booth #2317, duringSEMICON West.