Tuesday 19th August 2008

IBM and AMD create first 22nm SRAM cell

Posted at: 11:22am 19th August 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

IBM and its partners create a working 22nm SRAM cell using high-NA immersion lithography

IBM 32nm SRAM cell using High-K/Metal Gate technology

Transistor technology has just taken another step towards the continuation of Moore’s law, as IBM has announced that it’s produced a working sample of an SRAM cell built on a 22nm process at its 300mm research facility in Albany, New York. The technology was developed with several partners, including AMD, Toshiba, STMicroelectronics and Freescale, as well as the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), where IBM performs a lot of its semiconductor research.

IBM says that the cell’s development process involved ‘novel fabrication processes,’ including high-NA immersion lithography to print the compact patterns. The company also notes that development of the 22nm cell was helped along by technologies such as high-K metal gate stacks, extremely thin silicide, damascene copper contacts and advanced activation techniques.

The cell itself is miniscule, covering an area of just 0.1µm² and IBM says that it’s a precursor of what’s to come in future chips. The next process generation for silicon, according to IBM, has 32nm transistors, with 22nm chips following in the generation after that.

Last year, Intel showed off a 32nm SRAM cell at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in November, and IBM also showed off a 32nm cell smaller than 0.15µm² later on in December. An SRAM cell, in the words of IBM, is a ‘basic building block,’ which is then usually shrunk to make a denser SRAM chip. Although we’re still years away from a 22nm CPU, IBM says points out that ‘SRAM cell size is a key technology metric in the semiconductor industry, and this work demonstrates IBM and its partners' continued leadership in cutting-edge process technology.’

Vice president of science and technology at IBM Research, Dr T. C. Chen, commented that IBM is ‘working at the ultimate edge of what is possible - progressing toward advanced, next-generation semiconductor technologies.’ He also added that ‘This new development is a critical achievement in the pursuit to continually drive miniaturisation in microelectronics.’

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IBM are the developers for the process development - one of their research facilities is in a university - meaning there is little or no cost attached to it because it counts as educational research and gets money from gov't as well as having teams of scientists who are paid by the university (not by IBM), so this actually costs less then alot of you are thinking. AMD aren't "wasting money" on anything, IBM are the ones who develop the fabrication processes for them, meaning that without them they would either be not here, or they would still be selling 90nm/125nm CPU's...meaning they wouldn't be here...anyway back on topic, this is great news and I'm sure if everyone works hard, 22nm PU's andotehr chips could be here alot quicker than 5-10years, meaning lowring power consumption in components in general which is...awesome (especially with those stabard energy companies telling us price rises are due to oil costs when it's gone down by $30!)

Comment by EdArch at 3:10pm 21st August 2008

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That's why they are struggling....

unfortunately AMD have to stop reaching for the stars. Their current and nearly released product base needs more attention ahead of this 5 to 10 year product. It is good that they are developing these products but in all probability these products will end up as someone elses product as part of the purchase of AMD. Concentrate on the now AMD and make your current crop better and cost effective because it seems we are paying for the developement of newer product instead on the ones we are buying now.

Comment by crazyceo at 4:31pm 20th August 2008

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Desperation..

But would AMD rush it out, and make a complete hash of another 'ground breaking' development?

Comment by Nemiro at 7:55pm 19th August 2008

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@ WTF_NL

i wouldnt think so, we havent even got commercial 32nm chips yet, so 22nm wont be for atleast another 5 years or so

Comment by soddit113 at 4:10pm 19th August 2008

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amd go

AMD times this perfectly .. heating up the ground under Intel before its conference, i even think that this is more of a hint to what might be revealed just after the conference, maybe the new cpu details, hey u never know.

Comment by WTF_NL at 11:42am 19th August 2008

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