AMD ANNOUNCES TECHNOLOGY TO ENABLE TEN-FOLD PERFORMANCE
LEAP IN FUTURE TRANSISTORS
-World's smallest version of innovative design can
foster better products
and lower manufacturing costs-
SUNNYVALE, CA-September 10, 2002-AMD (NYSE: AMD) today
announced it has fabricated the smallest double-gate transistors reported to
date using industry standard technology. These transistors, measuring ten
nanometers, or ten billionths of a meter in length (gate), are six times smaller
than the smallest transistors currently in production. AMD's research
breakthrough could foster the placement of a billion transistors on the same
size chip that currently holds 100 million transistors, enabling a vastly richer
computing experience. Transistors are the miniscule on/off switches that make up
the integrated circuits in today's microprocessors. A double-gate transistor
structure effectively doubles the electrical current that can be sent through a
given transistor. The Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) design relies upon a
thin vertical silicon "fin" to help control leakage of current through the
transistor when it is in the "off" stage. This design combination allows for the
creation of new chips with enhanced performance and ever-shrinking geometries.
"Transistor development is essential to the creation of
higher-performing products for our customers," said Craig Sander, AMD's vice
president of Technology Development. "The entire semiconductor industry is
working to meet the increasing challenges of developing new transistor designs
that are smaller and higher-performing and yet can be manufactured with minimal
deviation from today's industry standard manufacturing processes. The FinFET
transistor indicates we can continue to deliver very high performance products
while preserving the basic technology infrastructure our industry relies upon."
AMD's laboratory demonstration of ten nanometer
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Fin Field Effect Transistor (CMOS FinFET)
is the outcome of collaborative research between AMD and the University of
California, Berkeley with support from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC).
The devices were fabricated in AMD's Submicron Development Center. "The superior
leakage control characteristics make FinFET transistors an attractive candidate
for future nano-scale CMOS generations, which are expected to be in
manufacturing within the next decade," said Dr. Tsu-Jae King, Associate
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at U.C. Berkeley. "The
FinFET device characteristics indicate strong potential for extending the
scalability of CMOS technology." AMD and the University of California will
present the paper, titled "FinFET Scaling to 10 nm Gate Length" at the
International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, December
9-11, 2002.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the
personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing
facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and
Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices,
and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in
1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in
2001. (NYSE: AMD).
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