The National Nano Device Laboratories under NARL have led the world in developing a new process called nano injection lithography to make SRAM that anticipates 16-nm chip features and greatly simplifies the integrated circuit production process.
With a capacity 10 times that of current 45-nm SRAM devices, the new technology will lead to even smaller and lighter portable electronics products after mass production begins by allowing for major reductions in motherboard size. In the future, the technology could lead to computers as light as 500 grams in weight.
SRAM is faster and significantly less power hungry than dynamic random access memory, but the production costs are relatively higher.
The semiconductor industry is set to switch from the 45-nm process to the 32-nm process on a trial basis next year. However, the new 16-nm technology developed by Taiwan researchers may represent the next advancement beyond this stage.
According to sources, this key technology is expected to save Taiwan industry roughly NT$30 billion (US$929 million) per year in technology rights expenditures in the future.
The Taiwan researchers have already presented their work at the International Electron Devices Meeting, the world’s main forum for reporting breakthroughs in technology, design, manufacturing, physics and the modeling of semiconductors and other electronic devices.
Yang Fu-liang, director-general of the NDL, said the 16-nm SRAM device offers a nine-fold increase in capacity over 45-nm SRAM technology and a 60-percent reduction in microchip size, while at the same time lowering power consumption by about half.
Simon Min Sze, academician of the Academia Sinica and known as Taiwan’s “father of the semiconductor,” said Dec. 15 the “nanoelectronics century” would soon be upon us. According to Sze, the industry’s worldwide production value is expected to reach US$10 trillion in 2030. (SB)