Semiconductor Groups Join Forces as ITRS to Predict Global Technology Through 2014

摘要

By 2005, DRAMs will adopt half a cell pitch (a half-pitch) of 100nm. By 2014, the half-pitch will have shrunk to 35nm. That prognosis is from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors Committee (ITRS). Since 1992, the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has made predictions about the technology developments for semiconductors. However, the ITRS offers the first set of predictions by an international group, consisting of semiconductor industry organizations in Europe, Japan, the United States, Korea and Taiwan. Technologies for semiconductors continue to surge ahead in complexity and sophistication. Levels of integration are increasing fourfold every three years. As microchips adopt increasingly miniature designs, engineers will require sharp advances in the technologies for multiple layering of masks, and in solutions to the issues involving gate film thickness. Developers have obtained fair prospects for reaching these goals by 2005. They include the Association of Super-Advanced Electronics Technologies (ASET) and the Semiconductor Leading-Edge Technologies, Inc. (SELETE) in Japan, and the Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Institute (Sematech) and National Laboratories in the United States. However, no outfit or industry group as yet has any prospects for solving problems of manufacturing technologies and materials from about 2008 onward (Fig. 1). Dr. Paolo Gardini, Chairman of the ITRS Committee, emphasized the need for global cooperation in cultivating these technologies and solving the problems.