Strained Silicon Seeing Success

摘要

Strained silicon is one of those rare new technologies that enables a fairly dramatic increase in performance with a relatively simple change in starting materials. Proof that transistors fabricated with strained silicon were faster due to increased electron mobility and velocity was first demonstrated in the mid-1980s. Then, in 1998, researchers showed it would work with leading-edge, sub-100 nm short-channel transistors. Today, companies such as Intel, IBM, Hitachi, AMD and UMC have reported success with strained silicon.