Economic Analysis of NIST's Investments in Superfilling Research. Planning Report 08-1. Final Report

摘要

The semiconductor industry has long recognized that critical dimensions of integrated circuits (ICs) would need to be continually reduced so that devices could become smaller, faster, and more power efficient. In the 1990s, the semiconductor industry supply chain was producing devices with critical dimensions of between 0.35 and 0.25 microns, using aluminum or an aluminum copper alloy to interconnect device components (e.g., transistors). For devices with critical dimensions of 0.20 microns or smaller, the electrical properties of aluminum were deemed no longer sufficient to support efficient device operation. Thus, the industry's roadmap determined that copper--a superior conducting material--would be needed to help manufacture smaller and faster semiconductor devices.