VLSI Technology

by SANKHA CHAKRA PAREEK

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VLSI Technology
Introduction (Lecture 1)
History of VLSI MOS Transistor - Introduction Transistor scaling and Moores law - BKD

MOS Technology (Lecture 2 & 3)

MOS Transistor Characteristics and Short Channel Effects Fabrication of CMOS structure

VLSI Design (Lecture 4 & 5)

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Complexities involved and key design issues VLSI Design flow (analog, digital, RF, CPLD, FPGA) Role of design engineer in IC industry Manufacturing trends & ITRS Roadmap
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Introduction to VLSI
(Lecture 1) Sources:
International Technology Roadmap For Semiconductors http://public.itrs.net/ INTELhttp://www.intel.com/technology/ silicon/index.htm
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1 mm Minimum Feature Size

Low Complexity

VACUUM TUBES

High Failure Rate

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1930-

SEMICONDUCTOR BASED TRANSISTORS PLANAR TRANSISTORS

1960s

ICs LSI, VLSI

1970-90

SMART STRUCTURES (MEMS) 1-5 nm High

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1995-

NANO STRUCTURES
2010-

Cost

1950s

Low

First Computer

The Babbage Difference Engine (1832) 25,000 parts cost: 17,470

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ENIAC - The First Electronic Computer (1946)

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First Transistor
Point Contact Germanium Transistor

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Shockley, Brattain & Bardeen - Bell Labs, 1948 Nobel Prize - 1956

Planar Process
p-n Junction Formation Light Mask n-Si

p-Si
oxidise Lithography b e Bipolar transistor
ox
+ p n n

Etch c
n+ n

P-Diffuse

p+

n+ p-Si

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First Integrated Circuits

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First IC Jack Kilby, 1958, Texas Instruments, Nobel Prize 2000

Early Integrated Circuits

Bipolar logic 1960s

ECL 3-input Gate Motorola 1966

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Intel 4004 Micro-Processor

1971 1000 transistors 1 MHz operation

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IC Processor

INTEL Pentium IV

IBM Corp. Power PC

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IC Processor

INTEL Prescot 90nm 125 million transistors

INTEL Montecito 90nm 1.72 billion transistors

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IC SRAM Chip
0.57 m2 cell size >0.5 billion transistors 110 mm2 chip size Fully functional 70 Mbit SRAM chips have been fabricated.

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Evolution of Integrated Circuits

Transistor Shockley, Brattain &Bardeen (Bell
Labs) in 1948 NL 1956 Bipolar transistor Schockley in 1949 First bipolar digital logic gate Harris in 1956 First monolithic IC Jack Kilby in 1958 NL 2000 First commercial IC logic gates Fairchild 1960 TTL 1962 into the 1990s ECL 1974 into the 1980s

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Evolution of Integrated Circuits

Transistor Bardeen et al.(Bell Labs) in 1947 MOSFET transistor - Lilienfeld (Canada) in 1925 and Heil (England) in 1935 CMOS 1960s, but plagued with manufacturing problems PMOS in 1960s (calculators) NMOS in 1970s (4004, 8080) for speed CMOS in 1980s preferred MOSFET technology because of power benefits BiCMOS, Gallium-Arsenide, Silicon-Germanium SOI, Copper-Low K,

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Integrated Circuits
SSI Small Scale Integrated Circuits
Less than 10 gates e.g., 7404 inverter

MSI Medium Scale Integrated Circuits

Less than 1000 gates e.g., 74161 counter

LSI Large Scale Integrated Circuits

Less than 10,000 gates e.g., 8bit processor

VLSI Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits

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more than 10,000 gates e.g., 64bit processor

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MOS Structure
Gate charge
+

metal or n+- polysilicon

+ +

oxide

Depletion layer charge or Bulk charge

p-silicon

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In a metal-oxide-silicon structure, a depletion layer forms below the metal gate. For p-type silicon substrate, a positive charge develops on metal side and depletion layer is negatively charged.

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MOS Structure
M
Accumulation, VGB <VFB Flat Band, VGB =VFB VGB =0
+ + + +
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p-Si
++ ++

Depletion 0 < VGB < VT Inversion, VGB >VT

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+ + + + + + + + +

MOS Transistor
VG Source VS
n+

Gate
VD
n+ poly-Si oxide

Drain

n+
Wdep p- Si

depletion region

n-channel

L channel length

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NMOS Transistor

NMOS transistor (NMOSFET) behaves as a resistor when VDS is low:

Drain current ID increases linearly with VDS

Resistance RDS between SOURCE & DRAIN depends on VGS RDS is lowered as VGS increases above VT
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NMOS Transistor
VGS > VT : Pinch-off VDS = VGSVT
Inversion-layer is pinched-off at the drain end

Electrons are swept into the drain by the E-field when they enter the pinch-off region and saturation occurs.

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MOS Transistor
6 5 4 3 2 1

X 10-4

VDS = VGS - VT VGS = 2.5V

VGS = 2.0V Linear

Saturation VGS = 1.5V

VGS = 1.0V

Cut-off : Linear region : Saturation :

ID 0

cutoff

0.5

1.5

2.5

VDS (V)

ID

V W n C ox ( VGS DS VT )VDS L 2

ID

W n C ox ( VGS VT ) 2 2L

GS GS Back gate effect : VT (VBS ) VT (VBS 0) ( 2p VBS 2p )

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NMOS Transistor
G S gate oxide insulator
n n

Without a gate voltage applied, no current can flow between the source and drain regions. Above a certain gate-to-source voltage (threshold voltage VT), a conducting layer of mobile electrons is formed at the Si surface beneath the oxide. These electrons can carry current between the source and drain.
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MOSFET as a Resistive Switch

For digital circuit applications, the MOSFET is either OFF (VGS < VT) or ON (VGS = VDD). Thus, we only need to consider two ID vs. VDS curves: 1. the curve for VGS < VT 2. the curve for VGS = VDD
ID VGS = VDD (closed switch) Req VDS VGS < VT (open switch)
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NMOS & PMOS Transistor

NMOS
n+ poly-Si n+

PMOS
p+ poly-Si n+ p+
+++++

p+

p-type Si

n-type Si

For current to flow, VGS > VT Enhancement mode: VT > 0

For current to flow, VGS < VT Enhancement mode: VT < 0 Depletion mode: VT > 0
Transistor is ON when VG=0V

Depletion mode: VT < 0

Transistor is ON when VG=0V

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PMOS Transistor
As compared to an n-channel MOSFET, the signs of all the voltages and the currents are reversed:

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MOS Transistor Structure

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MOS Structure
Gate (contact not shown) Source Drain

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MOS Structure
Transistor for 90nm process In Production

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After Intel Corp

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Transistor Scaling

After Intel Corp

After Intel Corp

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Scale of Things

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Benefit of Transistor Scaling

Generation: 1.5 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.35 0.25

Intel386 DX Processor

smaller chip area lower cost

Intel486 DX Processor

Pentium Processor

Pentium II Processor more functionality on a chip

better system performance
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Moores Law
In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors that can be integrated on a die would double every 18 to 14 months (i.e., grow exponentially with time). Amazingly visionary million transistor/chip barrier was crossed in the 1980s.

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2300 transistors, 1 MHz clock (Intel 4004) - 1971 16 Million transistors (Ultra Sparc III) 42 Million, 2 GHz clock (Intel P4) - 2001 140 Million transistor (HP PA-8500)
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Moores Law
Transistors on lead microprocessors double every 2 years
1000 100 Transistors (MT) 10 1 0.1 0.01 8085 8086 8080 8008 4004 1980 1990 Year 2000 2010
Courtesy, Intel
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2X growth in 1.96 years!

486 386 286

P6 Pentium proc

0.001
1970
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Moores Law

After Intel Corp

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90 nm Montecito processor breaks through billion transistor mark ahead of trend line with 1.72B transistors

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Moores Law
100000000

4X growth every 3
10000000

Kbit capacity/chip

1000000

book

64,000,000 0.07 m years! human memory 16,000,000 0.1 m human DNA 4,000,000 0.13 m 1,000,000 0.18-0.25 m

100000

10000

1000 256 100 64 10 1980

1,000 1.6-2.4 m

4,000 1.0-1.2 m

16,000 0.7-0.8 m

256,000 0.35-0.4 m 64,000 0.5-0.6 m

encyclopedia 2 hrs CD audio 30 sec HDTV

page

DRAM Chip
1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010

1983

1986

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Year

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Moores Law
Processor power will keep doubling every two years.

After Intel Corp

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Moores Law

Transistor physical gate length will reach ~15 nm before end of this decade, and ~10 nm early next decade.
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After Intel Corp

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Moores Law

After Intel Corp

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Moores Law

After Intel Corp

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Moores Law
Die size grows by 14% to satisfy Moores Law
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Die Size
Die size (mm)
P6 486 Pentium proc

10 8080 8086 8085 286

386

~7% growth per year ~2X growth in 10 years

8008 4004
1 1970
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1980

1990 Year

2000

2010
Courtesy, Intel
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Moores Law
Lead microprocessors frequency doubles every 2 years
10000 1000 Frequency (Mhz) 100 486 10 1 0.1 1970
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2X every 2 years
P6 Pentium proc 8085 8086 286 8080 8008 4004 1980 1990 Year 2000
Courtesy, Intel
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386

Clock Frequency

2010

Moores Law
Lead Microprocessors power continues to increase
100

Power Dissipation
Power (Watts)

P6 Pentium proc 486 386

10
8086 286 1

8008 4004

8085 8080

0.1 1971 1974 1978 Year

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1985

1992

2000
Courtesy, Intel
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Power delivery and dissipation will be prohibitive

Moores Law
10000

Power Density (W/cm2)

1000

Rocket Nozzle Nuclear Reactor

8086

Power Density

100

Hot Plate 10 4004 P6 8008 8085 Pentium proc 386 286 486 8080 1
1970 1980 1990 Year 2000 2010
Courtesy, Intel
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Power density too high to keep junctions at low temp

Moores Law
1.E+01

Cost US$/transistor

1.E-01

1.E-03

Moores Law means Decreasing Costs: Packing more transistors into less space has dramatically reduced their cost and the cost of the products they populate.

1.E-05

1.E-07

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92

96

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Year

Moores Law
Roadmap for VLSI Technology
Lithography Node (nm)
Process Ist Year of Production Gate Length (nm) Wafer (mm)

250
P856 1997 200 200

180
P858 1999 130 200

130
Px60 2001 <70 200/ 300

90
P1262 2003 <50 300

65
P1264 2005 <35 300

45
P1266 2007 <25 300

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Source ITRS

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Moores Law
Transistor for 90nm process In Production

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After Intel Corp

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Moores Law

15nm Research Transistor

After Intel Corp
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Moores Law
130 nm node 90 nm node 65 nm node 70 nm length Production-2001 50 nm length Production-2003

45 nm node

30 nm length Production-2005 32 nm node 20 nm length Production-2007 15nm length Production-2009

After Intel Corp
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Moores Law - Future

Future High-k Dielectric for Reduced Gate Leakage

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30nm Tri-gate Transistor

After Intel Corp
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Moores Law - Future

Silicon Nanowires Source: Morales & Lieber, Science 279, 280 (1998)

After Intel Corp

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Moores Law - Future

MEMS-based RF Switches

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After Intel Corp

Intel Silicon Optical Modulator Convergence of silicon and optical communications

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Processed Silicon Wafer in 2000

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Moores Law & IC Design

Why Scaling?
Technology shrinks by ~0.7 per generation With every generation can integrate 2x more functions on a chip; chip cost does not increase significantly Cost of a function decreases by 2x But
How to design chips with more and more functions? Design engineering population does not double every two years

Hence, a need for more efficient design methods

Exploit different levels of abstraction

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Design Levels
SYSTEM

MODULE GATE CIRCUIT DEVICE

G S n+ D n+

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The Inverted Pyramid

Electronic Systems > $ 2 trillion

Semiconductor > $ 300 billion

CAD > $ 5 billion

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Investment into IC Manufacture

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IC Manufacture Trend

Source ITRS
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