Advanced technology nodes, a foundry perspective

Leading edge foundries need to fulfill a wide range of customer needs and have to deliver state-of-the-art performance processes. Therefore, an innovative but flexible modular technology set up is essential. This paper will show after a brief introduction of foundry challenges in general Global Foundries path towards the 28nm technology. Here, two key elements like high k metal gate process and embedded stressors are discussed. The article is concluded with an outlook on future device scaling from a leading edge foundry’s perspective. This look ahead includes recent transistor architecture and process technology trends. More specifically, some challenges of the 20nm technology are discussed. This node will push planar transistor technology to its physical limits. Due to this, subsequent nodes will require substantial innovations in process architecture and device concepts. Two potential device paths are foreseen and compared, i.e. FinFet and ET-SOI-UTBB devices.