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65nm
The 65 nm process is an advanced lithographic node used in volume CMOS (MOSFET) semiconductor fabrication. Printed linewidths (i.e. transistor gate lengths) can reach as low as 25 nm on a nominally 65 nm process, while the pitch between two lines may be greater than 130 nm. For comparison, cellular ribosomes are about 20 nm end-to-end. A crystal of bulk silicon has a lattice constant of 0.543 nm, so such transistors are on the order of 100 atoms across. Toshiba and Sony announced the 65 nm process in 2002, before Fujitsu and Toshiba began production in 2004, and then TSMC began production in 2005. By September 2007, Intel, AMD, IBM, UMC and Chartered were also producing 65 nm chips. While feature sizes may be drawn as 65 nm or less, the wavelengths of light used for lithography are 193 nm and 248 nm. Fabrication of sub-wavelength features requires special imaging technologies, such as optical proximity correction and pha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Microelectronics Corporation
United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC; ) is a Taiwanese company based in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Overview UMC is best known for its semiconductor foundry business, manufacturing integrated circuits wafers for fabless semiconductor companies. In this role, UMC is ranked behind competitors TSMC. It has four 300 mm fabs, one in Taiwan, one in Singapore, one in China, and one in Japan. UMC is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange a2303 UMC has 12 manufacturing facilities worldwide, employing approximately 19,500 people. UMC is a significant supplier to the automotive industry. History * On May 22, 1980, UMC was spun off from the Industrial Technology Research Institute and was formally established as the first private integrated circuit company in Taiwan. * 1985: UMC was officially listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (code: 2303). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PlayStation 2 Technical Specifications
The PlayStation 2 technical specifications describe the various components of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game console. Overview The sixth-generation hardware of the PlayStation 2 video game console consists of various components. At the heart of the console's configuration is its central processing unit (CPU), a custom RISC processor known as the Emotion Engine which operates at 294.912 MHz (299 MHz in later consoles). The CPU heavily relies on its integration with two vector processing units, known as VPU0 and VPU1, the Graphics Synthesizer, and a floating-point unit (FPU) in order to render 3D graphics. Other components, such as the system's DVD-ROM optical drive and DualShock 2 controller, provide the software and user control input. PlayStation 2 software is distributed on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. In addition, the console can play audio CDs and DVD movies, and is backwards compatible with original PlayStation games. This is accomplished through the inclusion of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanometre
330px, Different lengths as in respect to the molecular scale. The nanometre (international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: nm) or nanometer (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American spelling) is a units of measurement, unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one billionth (short scale) of a metre () and to 1000 picometres. One nanometre can be expressed in scientific notation as , and as metres. History The nanometre was formerly known as the millimicrometre – or, more commonly, the millimicron for short – since it is of a micron (micrometre), and was often denoted by the symbol mμ or (more rarely and confusingly, since it logically should refer to a ''millionth'' of a micron) as μμ. Etymology The name combines the SI prefix ''nano-'' (from the Ancient Greek , ', "dwarf") with the parent unit name ''metre'' (from Greek , ', "unit of measurement"). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emotion Engine
The Emotion Engine is a central processing unit developed and manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment and Toshiba for use in the PlayStation 2 video game console. It was also used in early PlayStation 3 models sold in Japan and North America (Model Numbers CECHAxx & CECHBxx) to provide PlayStation 2 game support. Mass production of the Emotion Engine began in 1999 and ended in late 2012 with the discontinuation of the PlayStation 2. Description The Emotion Engine consists of eight separate "units", each performing a specific task, integrated onto the same die. These units are: a CPU core, two Vector Processing Units (VPU), a 10-channel DMA unit, a memory controller, and an Image Processing Unit (IPU). There are three interfaces: an input output interface to the I/O processor, a graphics interface (GIF) to the graphics synthesizer, and a memory interface to the system memory. The CPU core is tightly coupled to the first VPU, VPU0. Together, they are responsible for exe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nickel Silicide
Nickel silicides include several intermetallic compounds of nickel and silicon. Nickel silicides are important in microelectronics as they form at junctions of nickel and silicon. Additionally thin layers of nickel silicides may have application in imparting surface resistance to nickel alloys. Compounds Nickel silicides include Ni3Si, Ni31Si12, Ni2Si, Ni3Si2, NiSi and NiSi2. Ni31Si12, Ni2Si, and NiSi have congruent melting points; the others form via a peritectic transformation. The silicides can be made via fusion or solid state reaction between the elements, diffusion at a junction of the two elements, and other methods including ion beam mixing. Properties Nickel silicides are generally chemically and thermally stable. They have low electrical resistivity; with NiSi 10.5–18 μΩ·cm, Ni2Si 24–30 μΩ·cm, NiSi2 34–50 μΩ·cm; nickel-rich silicides have higher resistivity rising to 90–150 μΩ·cm in Ni31Si12. Uses Microelectronics Nickel silicides are important i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low-κ Dielectric
In semiconductor manufacturing, a low-κ is a material with a small relative dielectric constant (κ, kappa) relative to silicon dioxide. Low-κ dielectric material implementation is one of several strategies used to allow continued scaling of microelectronic devices, colloquially referred to as extending Moore's law. In digital circuits, insulating dielectrics separate the conducting parts (wire interconnects and transistors) from one another. As components have scaled and transistors have gotten closer together, the insulating dielectrics have thinned to the point where charge build up and crosstalk adversely affect the performance of the device. Replacing the silicon dioxide with a low-κ dielectric of the same thickness reduces parasitic capacitance, enabling faster switching speeds (in case of synchronous circuits) and lower heat dissipation. In conversation such materials may be referred to as "low-k" (spoken "low-kay") rather than "low-κ" (low-kappa). Low-κ materials In in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cu Interconnect
In semiconductor technology, copper interconnects are interconnects made of copper. They are used in silicon integrated circuits (ICs) to reduce propagation delays and power consumption. Since copper is a better conductor than aluminium, ICs using copper for their interconnects can have interconnects with narrower dimensions, and use less energy to pass electricity through them. Together, these effects lead to ICs with better performance. They were first introduced by IBM, with assistance from Motorola, in 1997. The transition from aluminium to copper required significant developments in fabrication techniques, including radically different methods for patterning the metal as well as the introduction of barrier metal layers to isolate the silicon from potentially damaging copper atoms. Patterning Although some form of volatile copper compound has been known to exist since 1947, with more discovered as the century progressed, none were in industrial use, so copper could not be p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interconnects (integrated Circuits)
In integrated circuits (ICs), interconnects are structures that connect two or more circuit elements (such as transistors) together electrically. The design and layout of interconnects on an IC is vital to its proper function, performance, power efficiency, reliability, and fabrication yield. The material interconnects are made from depends on many factors. Chemical and mechanical compatibility with the semiconductor substrate and the dielectric between the levels of interconnect is necessary, otherwise barrier layers are needed. Suitability for fabrication is also required; some chemistries and processes prevent the integration of materials and unit processes into a larger technology (recipe) for IC fabrication. In fabrication, interconnects are formed during the back-end-of-line after the fabrication of the transistors on the substrate. Interconnects are classified as ''local'' or ''global'' interconnects depending on the signal propagation distance it is able to support. The wid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Electron Devices Meeting
The IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is an annual micro- and nanoelectronics conference held each December that serves as a forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and related device technologies, design, manufacturing, physics, modeling and circuit-device interaction. The IEEE IEDM is where "Moore’s Law" got its name, as Gordon Moore first published his predictions in an article in ''Electronics Magazine'' in 1965. Ten years later he refined them in a talk at the IEDM, and from that point on people began referring to them as Moore's Law. Moore’s Law states that the complexity of integrated circuits would double approximately every two years. IEDM brings together managers, engineers, and scientists from industry, academia, and government around the world to discuss nanometer-scale CMOS transistor technology, advanced memory, displays, sensors, MEMS devices, novel quantum and nanoscale devices using emerging phenomena, opt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-κ Dielectric
The term high-κ dielectric refers to a material with a high dielectric constant (κ, kappa), as compared to silicon dioxide. High-κ dielectrics are used in semiconductor manufacturing processes where they are usually used to replace a silicon dioxide gate dielectric or another dielectric layer of a device. The implementation of high-κ gate dielectrics is one of several strategies developed to allow further miniaturization of microelectronic components, colloquially referred to as extending Moore's Law. Sometimes these materials are called "high-k" (pronounced "high kay"), instead of "high-κ" (high kappa). Need for high-κ materials Silicon dioxide () has been used as a gate oxide material for decades. As metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) have decreased in size, the thickness of the silicon dioxide gate dielectric has steadily decreased to increase the gate capacitance (per unit area) and thereby drive current (per device width), raising device perfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Tunneling
In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude of the physical property can take on only discrete values consisting of integer multiples of one quantum. For example, a photon is a single quantum of light (or of any other form of electromagnetic radiation). Similarly, the energy of an electron bound within an atom is quantized and can exist only in certain discrete values. (Atoms and matter in general are stable because electrons can exist only at discrete energy levels within an atom.) Quantization is one of the foundations of the much broader physics of quantum mechanics. Quantization of energy and its influence on how energy and matter interact (quantum electrodynamics) is part of the fundamental framework for understanding and describing nature. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leakage (semiconductors)
In electronics, leakage is the gradual transfer of electrical energy across a boundary normally viewed as insulating, such as the spontaneous discharge of a charged capacitor, magnetic coupling of a transformer with other components, or flow of current across a transistor in the "off" state or a reverse-polarized diode. In capacitors Gradual loss of energy from a charged capacitor is primarily caused by electronic devices attached to the capacitors, such as transistors or diodes, which conduct a small amount of current even when they are turned off. Even though this off current is an order of magnitude less than the current through the device when it is on, the current still slowly discharges the capacitor. Another contributor to leakage from a capacitor is from the undesired imperfection of some dielectric materials used in capacitors, also known as ''dielectric leakage''. It is a result of the dielectric material not being a perfect insulator and having some non-zero conductivit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
