VLSI Technology

Scaling
Moores Law
3D VLSI

The beginning
Microprocessors are essential to many of the products
we use every day such as TVs, cars, radios, home
appliances and of course, computers. Transistors are
the main components of microprocessors.
At their most basic level, transistors may seem
simple. But their development actually required many
years of painstaking research. Before transistors,
computers relied on slow, inefficient vacuum tubes
and mechanical switches to process information. In
1958, engineers managed to put two transistors onto a
Silicon crystal and create the first integrated circuit,
which subsequently led to the first
microprocessor.

MOSFET

Transistor Size Scaling

performance
improves as size is
decreased:
shorter switching
time, lower power
consumption.

2 orders of magnitude reduction in transistor size in

Significant Breakthroughs
Transistor size: Intels research labs have recently shown the worlds smallest
transistor, with a gate length of 15nm. We continue to build smaller and smaller
transistors that are faster and faster. We've reduced the size from 70 nanometer to 30
nanometer to 20 nanometer, and now to 15 nanometer gates.
Manufacturing process: A new manufacturing process called 130 nanometer process
technology (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) allows Intel today to manufacture
chips with circuitry so small it would take almost 1,000 of these "wires" placed sideby-side to equal the width of a human hair. This new 130-nanometer process has
60nm gate-length transistors and six layers of copper interconnect. This process is
producing microprocessors today with millions of transistors and running at multigigahertz clock speeds.
Wafer size: Wafers, which are round polished disks made of silicon, provide the base
on which chips are manufactured. Use a bigger wafer and you can reduce
manufacturing costs. Intel has begun using a 300 millimeter (about 12 inches)
diameter silicon wafer size, up from the previous wafer size of 200mm (about 8
inches).

Major Design Challenges

Microscopic issues
ultra-high speeds
power dissipation and
supply rail drop
growing importance of
interconnect
noise, crosstalk
reliability,
manufacturability
clock distribution

Macroscopic issues
time-to-market
design complexity
(millions of gates)
high levels of
abstractions
design for test
reuse and IP, portability
systems on a chip (SoC)
tool interoperability

Year

Tech.

Complexity

Frequency

Staff Size

Staff Costs

1997

0.35

13 M Tr.

400 MHz

210

$90 M

1998

0.25

20 M Tr.

500 MHz

270

$120 M

1999

0.18

32 M Tr.

600 MHz

360

$160 M

2002

0.13

130 M Tr.

800 MHz

800

$360 M

Integrated Circuits

Digital logic is implemented using transistors in integrated circuits

containing many gates.

small-scale integrated circuits (SSI) contain 10 gates or less

medium-scale integrated circuits (MSI) contain 10-100 gates
large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) contain up to 10 4 gates
very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) contain >10 4 gates

Improvements in manufacturing lead to ever smaller transistors

allowing more per chip.
>107 gates/chip now possible; doubles every 18 months or so

Variety of logic families

TTL - transistor-transistor logic

CMOS - complementary metal-oxide semiconductor
ECL - emitter-coupled logic
GaAs - gallium arsenide

What are shown on previous diagrams cover only the so called front end
processing fabrication steps that go towards forming the devices and
interconnections between these devices to produce the functioning IC's. The
end result are wafers each containing a regular array of the same IC chip or
die. The wafer then has to be tested and the chips diced up and the good chips
mounted and wirebonded in different types of IC package and tested again
before being shipped out.

From Howe, Sodini: Microelectronics:An

Integrated Approach, Prentice Hall

Moores Law

Gordon E. Moore - Chairman Emeritus of Intel Corporation

1965 - observed trends in industry - # of transistors on ICs vs. release dates :

Noticed number of transistors doubling with release of each new

IC generation
release dates (separate generations) were all 18-24 months apart

Moores Law:

The number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double

every 18 months

The level of integration of silicon technology as measured in terms of

number of devices per IC
This comes about in two ways size reduction of the individual devices and
increase in the chip or dice size
As an indication of size reduction, it is interesting to note that feature size
was measured in mils (1/1000 inch, 1 mil = 25 mm) up to early 1970s,
whereas now all features are measured in mms (1 mm = 10 -6 m or 10-4 cm)
Semiconductor industry has followed this prediction with surprising
accuracy

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
Amazing visionary million transistor/chip barrier was crossed in the 1980s.
2300 transistors, 1 MHz clock (Intel 4004) - 1971
42 Million, 2 GHz clock (Intel P4) - 2001
140 Million transistor (HP PA-8500)

Source: Intel web page (www.intel.com)

Moores Law

From Intels 4040 (2300 transistors) to Pentium II

(7,500,000 transistors) and beyond

Relative sizes of ICs in graph

Ever since the invention of integrated circuit, the smallest feature size has been
reducing every year. Currently (2002) the smallest feature size is about 0.13
micron. At the same time the number transistors per chip is increasing due to
feature size reduction and increase in chip area. Classic example is the case of
memory chips: Gordon Moore of Intel in early 1970s found that: density (bits per
chip) growing at the rate of four times in 3 to 4 years - often referred to as Moores
Law. In subsequent years, the pace slowed down a bit, data density has doubled
approximately every 18 months current definition of Moores Law.

Limits of Moores Law?

Growth expected until 30 nm gate length (currently: 180 nm)

size halved every 18 mos. - reached in
2001 + 1.5 log2((180/30)2) = 2009

what then?
Paradigm shift needed in fabrication process

Technological Background of the

Moores Law

To accommodate this change, the size of the silicon

wafers on which the integrated circuits are fabricated
have also increased by a very significant factor from
the 2 and 3 in diameter wafers to the 8 in (200 mm) and
12 in (300 mm) diameter wafers
The latest catch phrase in semiconductor technology (as
well as in other material science) is nanotechnology
usually referring to GaAs devices based on quantum
mechanical phenomena
These devices have feature size (such as film thickness,
line width etc) measured in nanometres or 10-9 metres

Recurring Costs
cost of die + cost of die test + cost of packaging
variable
cost
=
---------------------------------------------------------------final test yield
cost of wafer
cost of die = ----------------------------------dies per wafer die yield
(wafer diameter/2)2
wafer diameter
dies
per
wafer
=
---------------------------------
--------------------------die area
2 die area

die yield

= (1 + (defects per unit area die area)/)-

Yield Example

Example

wafer size of 12 inches, die size of 2.5 cm2, 1 defects/cm2,

= 3 (measure of manufacturing process complexity)

252 dies/wafer (remember, wafers round & dies square)

die yield of 16%

252 x 16% = only 40 dies/wafer die yield !

Die cost is strong function of die area

proportional to the third or fourth power of the die area

Intel 4004 Microprocessor

Intel Pentium (IV) Microprocessor

Die Size Growth

Die size grows by 14% to satisfy Moores Law

Die size (mm)

100

10
8080
8008
4004

8086
8085

286

386

P6
486 Pentium proc

~7% growth per year

~2X growth in 10 years

1
1970

1980

1990
Year

Courtesy, Intel

2000

2010

Clock Frequency
Lead microprocessors frequency doubles every 2 years
10000

2X every 2 years

Frequency (Mhz)

1000

P6

100
486
10

8085

1
0.1
1970

8086 286

Pentium proc

386

8080
8008
4004
1980

1990
Year

Courtesy, Intel

2000

2010

Examples of Cost Metrics (1994)

Chip

Metal
layers

Line
width

Wafer Defects/ Area

cost
cm2
(mm2)

Dies/ Yield
wafer

Die
cost

386DX

0.90

$900

1.0

43

360

71%

$4

486DX2

0.80

$1200

1.0

81

181

54%

$12

PowerPC
601

0.80

$1700

1.3

121

115

28%

$53

HP PA
7100

0.80

$1300

1.0

196

66

27%

$73

DEC
Alpha

0.70

$1500

1.2

234

53

19% $149

Super
SPARC

0.70

$1700

1.6

256

48

13% $272

Pentium

0.80

$1500

1.5

296

40

9% $417

VLSI

Very Large Scale Integration

design/manufacturing of extremely small, complex circuitry
using modified semiconductor material
integrated circuit (IC) may contain millions of transistors,
each a few m in size
applications wide ranging: most electronic logic devices

Origins of VLSI

Much development motivated by WWII need for improved

electronics, especially for radar
1940 - Russell Ohl (Bell Laboratories) - first pn junction
1948 - Shockley, Bardeen, Brattain (Bell Laboratories) first transistor
1956 Nobel Physics Prize
Late 1950s - purification of Si advances to acceptable
levels for use in electronics
1958 - Seymour Cray (Control Data Corporation) - first
transistorized computer - CDC 1604

Origins of VLSI (Cont.)

1959 - Jack St. Claire Kilby (Texas Instruments) - first

integrated circuit - 10 components on 9 mm 2
1959 - Robert Norton Noyce (founder, Fairchild
Semiconductor) - improved integrated circuit
1968 - Noyce, Gordon E. Moore found Intel
1971 - Ted Hoff (Intel) - first microprocessor (4004) - 2300
transistors on 9 mm2
Since then - continued improvement in technology has
allowed for increased performance as predicted by Moores
Law

Three Dimensional VLSI

The fabrication of a single integrated circuit whose functional

parts (transistors, etc) extend in three dimensions
The vertical orientation of several bare integrated circuits in a
single package

Advantages of 3D VLSI

Speed - the time required for a signal to travel between the functional circuit
blocks in a system (delay) reduced.
Delay depends on resistance/capacitance of interconnections
resistance proportional to interconnection length

Advantages of 3D VLSI

Noise - unwanted disturbances on a useful signal

reflection noise (varying impedance along interconnect)
crosstalk noise (interference between interconnects)
electromagnetic interference (EMI) (caused by current in pins)
3D chips
fewer, shorter interconnects
fewer pins

Advantages of 3D VLSI

Power consumption
power used charging an interconnect capacitance
P = fCV2
power dissipated through resistive material
P = V2/R
capacitance/resistance proportional to length
reduced interconnect lengths will reduce power

Advantages of 3D VLSI

Interconnect capacity (connectivity)

more connections between chips
increased functionality, ease of design

Advantages of 3D VLSI

Printed circuit board size/weight

planar size of PCB reduced with negligible IC height increase
weight reduction due to more circuitry per package/smaller PCBs
estimated 40-50 times reduction in size/weight

3D VLSI - Challenges and Solutions

Challenge: Thermal management

smaller packages
increased circuit density
increased power density
Solutions:
circuit layout (design stage)
high power sections uniformly distributed

advancement in cooling techniques (heat pipes)

Influential Participants - Industry

Mitsubishi, TI, Intel, CTS Microelectronics, Hitachi, Irvine Sensors, others...

high density memories
AT&T
high density multiprocessor
Many other applications/participants

Three Dimensional VLSI

Moores Law approaching physical limit

Increased performance expected by market
Paradigm shift needed - 3D VLSI
many advantages over 2D VLSI
economic limitations of fabrication overhaul will be overcome by
market demand

Three Dimensional VLSI may be the savior of Moores Law