The Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute (TSRI) of NARLabs has been dedicated to supporting the academia for its research to develop advanced semiconductor processing technologies and cultivating semiconductor talents. As the semiconductor process is continually progressing from sub-micron to nanometer technology, in accordance with national science and technology policies and industrial developments, TSRI has been exploring in superior processing technologies and applications such as functional nano CMOS Device, nano energy and optoelectronic device, NEMS / Bio-MEMS, and High-Frequency.
Key Technologies and innovative applications of next-generation nanodevices: The smart gas sensor chip
To prevent future explosions and protect people's lives and properties, TSRI is developing smart gas sensor chips that can be directly installed in portable devices (e.g., smartphones or watches) to supplement fixed environmental sensors and vastly increase the sensing range. Smart sensor chips that can detect volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and formaldehyde have already been successfully developed by TSRI.
World's leading wafer-level and three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous integration technology
Demonstration of through-silicon via ( TSV )-free 3D IoT chip technology
The technology integrates memory, circuit, and sensing unit in a single chips. This TSV-free 3D IC features the advantages of low cost, small chip area, and low power consumption, suitable for IoT chips.
World's first heating process technology for nanogermanium electronic components
Selective heating technology using far-infrared laser
TSRI has established the far-infrared laser selective heating system and technology suitable for the heating process of electronic nanocomponents. The feature that far-infrared laser can be highly absorbed by materials was used to considerably increase the activation ability of materials and to reduce component damage caused by heat. The technology is applicable to the fabrication of monolithic 3D IC and sub-10nm IC.
The selective heating technology using far-infrared laser was adopted to realize a sub-10nm stackable transistor.
Developing an advanced structure for sub-10nm devices using dry etching technology
Diamond-shaped germanium channel gate-all-around transistor
Germanium has a higher carrier mobility than silicon. Therefore, TSRI used a simple method of dry etching to fabricate a novel diamond- shaped channel, which can improve the transport performance of electrons and reduce the leakage current during device operation. The gate-all-around structure provides satisfactory gate control ability and thus is suitable for future development and application of the sub-10nm devices.
Application of microwave and laser annealing to the semiconductor 3D IC process technology
The chemistry-based doping technology was developed under the temperature of 600℃
A number of diff iculties have to be overcome during the development of the 7nm devices process. For example, the control capability of gates under the short channel effect was unsatisfactory, and the junction doping was unstable. To solve the doping problem of ultra-shallow junction, a novel annealing process was developed by combining microwave annealing with CO2 laser annealing to replace the traditional rapid thermal annealing. In this newly developed process, microwave annealing under 600℃ was performed to enable the molecular monolayer dopant diffusion into silicon, followed by CO2 laser annealing. The result showed that the doping depth was smaller than 5nm.
