at the vlsi symposium in kyoto, japan, toshiba announced that they have made an important advance in transistor technology. toshiba has described a cmos transistor with superior electrical effects. the transistor that toshiba described uses a high-k dielecric oxide for the transistor's gate. the problem with the dielectrics currently in use (primarily silicon dioxide) is that these materials permit leakage from the gate into the substrate. as the gate oxides grow thinner with each new process generation (to less than two nanometers) leakage increases exponentially. toshiba has discovered a new dielectric material, called nitrided halfnium silicate. this material, the company claims, only allows 1/1000th the leakage of silicon dioxide. the company further claims that this material is able to stand up to conventional fabrication processes, and allows for adequate drive current. according to motorola, the switch to high-k gate dielectrics will need to be accompanied by a switch to metal gates, since the currently used polysilicon gates may be incompatible with high-k materials such as halfnium oxides. these new-and-improved transistors will be needed for the 65 nanometer generation, since at that point leakage issues will become severe.
user comments 11 comment(s)
|this is all good (9:38am est wed jun 11 2003)
this is good news and it should help with the introduction of the fin-fets.
lower power, lower heat and faster. what more could anyone ask for? – by seth
|a new element? (9:38am est wed jun 11 2003)
is halfnium some new element? i guess a halfnium is better than a wholenium.
oh, yeah. 1st post. – by my 2 cents
|two things (12:29pm est wed jun 11 2003)
1) halfnium is not new, its been around for some time. periodic tables are your friend.
2) any idea when this will be finding its way into production? will it make it for the expected 65 release or will it delay the 65? – by 3 4 transistors
|release date (1:05pm est wed jun 11 2003)
i wonder whether the new transistors may have to race intel's tri-gate transistors to market…
still, its possible that the two technologies may be combined – a tri-gate transistor with a nitrided halfnium silicate gate…. – by who i am
|tri-gate hand in hand with new dielectric (5:32pm est wed jun 11 2003)
“i wonder wethere the new transistors may have to race intel's tri-gate transistors to market…”
they should actually go hand in hand. the tri-gate transistors have a significantly lager gate area which means that the leakage has the potential to also grow significantly. by introducing the new dielectric, gates can be made larger (multiple surfaces) without increasing the leakage current. – by seth
|thing (5:36am est thu jun 12 2003)
“halfnium is not new, its been around for some time”
ha! that's pretty funny alright. by 'some time', you mean since shortly after creation or since it was finally found? seems like most people call it nuclarium nowadays. – by nobody special
|tri-gate hand in hand with new dielectric (5:44am est thu jun 12 2003)
didn't i mention that that possibility as well?
>still, its possible that the two technologies may be combined – a tri-gate transistor with a nitrided halfnium silicate gate…. – by who i am
|uhh… (7:50pm est thu jun 12 2003)
maybe no one except this ol' goat caught it, but it is hafnium, with no l. chemistry, kids, chemistry.
tertiary chalcogenides (well, silicates in this example) are an excellent starting point: higher 'ordering' crystalization entropy function yields much more well organized layers of atoms in a near-molecular layer. hence, all routes for electrons are trapped by the lattice itself. silicon dioxide (or the nitrided version) is still largely glassy, so its oxygens and silicon atoms are pretty mixed up. even with annealing.
someday, i feel, they're gonna be using gates that are metal separated from silicon by air (or a vacuum), which reduces leakate to quantum tunneling levels.
– by goatguy
|what is the cost of halfnium (4:05am est thu nov 18 2004)
i would think that the cost of halfnum would have to be very low to compete in this market. does any one know what the cost is? – by abe
|hafnium market (11:35am est mon feb 20 2006)
costs range from $70usd to $120usd /# depending on source and purity. the largest challenge in purification is liberating halfnium from zirconium. natural sources tend to have both elements coinciding. as they both have similar physical properties, pure hf takes some investment in processing, making it more expensive and harder to come by, upping the price. us demands are in the order of 60k lbs/yr. – by battery
|periodic table (10:22am est sun aug 20 2006)
have you guys checked out the new periodic table at science-fusion.com i guess it cooresponds to some new chemistry game. pretty cool if you like chemistry. – by praseo