Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company this week added a 28nm low-power process technology with high-K metal gate dielectrics. Earlier the company offered only high-performance 28nm HKMG fabrication process as well as low-power 28nm process technology with silicon oxinitride/poly (SiON/Poly) dielectrics. The new process is expected to enter risk production in the third quarter of 2010.

“TSMC has been working with customers over a significant period of time to develop high-k metal gate technologies for low power applications. The addition of the 28nm HPL to the 28nm technology family, combined with the 28LP and 28HP, means that TSMC now provides the most comprehensive 28nm technology portfolio,” said Dr. Mark Liu, senior vice president of advanced technology business at TSMC.

At present TSMC has three different 28nm fabrication processes:

• The 28nm HPL process comes complete with comprehensive device support and is considered suitable as a system on a chip platform for general market applications. It is differentiated from the 28LP technology, which is positioned for cellular and handheld applications where lower cost and faster time-to-market from an evolutionary SiON process is most attractive. Risk production for the 28nm low power (LP) SiON process is scheduled for the end of first quarter of 2010.
• The 28nm HP process (high-performance with HKMG) is also built on a gate-last approach and supports performance driven devices such as CPUs, GPUs, Chipsets, FPGAs, video game console and mobile computing applications. Risk production for the 28nm HP process is expected at the end of second quarter, 2010.
• The 28nm HPL (low power with HKMG) process is a derivative of TSMC’s high performance HKMG technology and features low power, low leakage, and medium-high performance on a gate-last approach. It supports low leakage applications such as cell phone, smart netbook, wireless communication and portable consumer electronics. production for the 28nm HPL process is projected at the end of Q3 2010.

TSMC’s 28nm development and ramp has remained on schedule since the company announced the technology in September 2008, according to TSMC.

The 28HP process, TSMC’s first HKMG technology, offers over 30% higher speed than TSMC’s 40nm general purpose (40G) process at similar power density.

Tags: TSMC, Semiconductor, 28nm