LSI Logic unveils 0.13-micron process with low-k, aluminum for communication ICs

LSI Logic unveils 0.13-micron process with low-k, aluminum for communication ICs
PHOENIX--LSI Logic Corp. today disclosed a new "flexible" 0.13-micron process technology, called Gflx, which will have the capability to produce a range of highly integrated ICs for communications applications, including optical networks, wireless baseband processors, and digital line subscriber (xDSL) markets.

Unlike other chip makers, LSI Logic has opted to stay with aluminum metal interconnects instead of moving to copper processes at the 0.13-micron technology node. The Milpitas, Calif., company is counting on low-k dielectric materials in the insulator portion of interconnects to lower capacitance and speed the devices.

Unveiled before a meeting with analysts in Phoenix, the new technology will produce 0.10-micron effective channel lengths with 0.13-micron drawn gates, and provide up to eight levels of aluminum metal interconnect, the company said. The Gflx technology will produce 78 million usable logic gates, or about 612 million transistors, on a 20-by-20 mm chip, according to LSI Logic.

The company is among the first to formally announce a 0.13-micron process technology. LSI Logic plans to begin shipping 0.13-micron prototype ICs in early 2001, and company officials said they have already begun working with customers to apply chip designs to the Gflx process.

"Gflx provides us the flexibility to meet the next-generation requirements of system-on-a-chip, ASIC and standard products at a time when communications has clearly usurped the PC as the primary growth driver of the worldwide semiconductor industry," said Wilfred J. Corrigan, chairman, and chief executive officer of LSI Logic. "The ever-increasing demand for Internet bandwidth has caused suppliers of Internet infrastructure to integrate more functions onto a single chip, which makes Gflx an ideal solution."

Unlike most major IC makers, LSI Logic decided to emphasize low-k dielectrics first before moving to copper dual-damascene processing. "The ultimate solution--probably around the 0.10-micron generation--will be a mixture of low-k and copper," said Ronnie Vasishta, senior director of technical product marketing in Milpitas. "It will be easier to implement copper into a stable low-k process, if you want to engineer the ultimate solution."

LSI Logic has developed its low-k dielectric processes with aluminum metal interconnect with equipment supplier Trikon Technologies Ltd. of Newport, Wales. LSI Logic has already incorporated Trikon's Flowfill deposition steps and thin-film material in its 0.18-micron G12 technology to achieve a dielectric constant of 3.1 once aluminum interconnects are placed on ICs, said Vasishta. Fluorinated silicon glass (FSG)--a popular choice for the initial step to lower dielectric constants--has a rating of 3.6 to 3.7 once interconnects are processed, Vasishta says.

To make the final move into copper, LSI Logic is partnered with Hitachi Ltd. in Japan.

The Gflx technology will have eight different product modules to provide chip designers with a range of options and flexibility for speed and low power consumption. LSI Logic said the new technology will have the flexibility to operate at 650 MHz or run at a low power option of 8.5nW per megahertz per gate.

The eight modules are: high-performance and low-power transistors; 1.5- and 1.2-V core libraries; mixed-signal; application-optimized I/O sets; metal options ranging from four-to-eight layers; embedded SRAM; and embedded FGPA.

"Gflx is our most dynamic process technology, making it suitable for high-volume customers manufacturing either high performance products, as found in servers and in the broadband infrastructure, or for low-power solutions, such as in wireless handsets," said John Daane, executive vice president of LSI Logic's Communications Products Group.

The technology is scheduled to be transferred to LSI Logic's wafer fab in Gresham, Ore., later this year. "Moving to the 0.10-micron L-effective technology generation demonstrates LSI Logic's commitment to being a process technology leader," said Joe Zelayeta, executive vice president of worldwide operations at LSI Logic. "Our state-of-the-art, high-volume Gresham wafer fabrication facility was designed to manufacture succeeding generations of process technologies. The global capacity crunch is especially acute in the lower geometries. LSI Logic not only has ample world class capacity, but also provides customers unprecedented flexibility with the Gflx process technology to optimize their end-market products."