Hitachi joins IMEC's high-k industrial affiliation program

Hitachi joins IMEC's high-k industrial affiliation program

Keywords Hitachi, IMEC

Hitachi, Ltd. and IMEC have announced that they will cooperate on the development of manufacturable gate-stack processes needed for (sub-)70nm devices. With Hitachi joining IMEC's industrial affiliation program on high-k dielectrics, the program evolves to a true global cooperation aiming to overcome one of the major roadblocks of the ITRS (international technology roadmap for semiconductors).

Hitachi and IMEC will collaborate to develop dedicated equipment, materials and processes for gate stacks for 70nm and smaller semiconductor devices. The agreement is for three years and during the entire duration of the contract a researcher of Hitachi will reside at IMEC. The work program includes all required aspects to develop this new gate stack: deposition of high-k dielectrics using ALCVD (atomic-layer chemical vapor deposition) and MOCVD(metal-organic CVD), cleaning and contamination control, physical and electrical characterization of high-k materials, reliability of gate stack and transistors,metal gates, process integration issues and ES&H (environment, safety and health) considerations. The initial EOT (effective oxide thickness) targeted is 1nm. However, the final aim is a feasibility demonstration of 0.5nm EOT gate stack.