SFN has introduced a family of four ‘process nodes’—referred to as Infrastructure Time Machines (ITMs)—which let chip designers produce ICs in older 180nm and even one micron geometry fabs with the equivalent performance of CMOS devices made in current state-of-the-art plants. For example, a fab equipped with 180nm photolithographic steppers, (such as Newport Wafer Fab, the UK’s largest semiconductor production plant) could now produce Zpolar Tunnel Logic (ZTL) devices with the performance of 35nm CMOS by implementing ITM35: and at reduced cost.
SFN’s CEO, David Summerland, said: “Until Bizen, the Zpolar transistor and ZTL logic, high performance chips for applications such as 5G and RISC-V could only be produced at facilities such as the Taiwanese giant TSMC, which controls most of the world’s high-performance semiconductor production. Now, UK and other Western fabs can be competitive again, and even overtake the Taiwanese and Korean giants, while also securing best national interests and IP.”
SFN is releasing four ITMs: ITM180 (180nm CMOS performance using one micron equipment; ITM35 (35nm CMOS-equivalent in 180nm process node fabs; ITM5 (5nm CMOS performance from 28nm steppers; and ITMSubnm meaning 3nm fabs can deliver sub-nm, Angstrom-level capabilities. VHDL is taken into the chosen ITM, which delivers the POR (Process of Reference) and the GDSii for the resultant IC to the fabs.
The infographic’s left axis shows CMOS fabrication nodes stretching back in time from today’s 3nm state-of-the-art. Each row represents approximately one decade. The right axis shows the CMOS node that would be required to achieve the performance that the compound combination of the Bizen wafer process Zpolar transistor and Zpolar Tunnel Logic (ZTL) can offer. The increasing number of cones shows how markets have widened each decade from just computer applications 60-years ago, to today where microchips are used in everything from the IoT, EVs, communications and consumer goods through to defence and other nationally-strategic and sensitive installations.
Foundries can use the ITM process nodes to employ an older CMOS-equivalent processing node to produce ZTL-based chips which offer orders-of-magnitude performance increases over their now-obsolete CMOS equivalents. VHDL is taken into the selected ITM (dependant on performance requirements) from chip designers. The ITM, which contains the characterized device libraries (LIB) and process development kit (PDK), supplies both the Process of Reference (POR) and GDSii information to the foundries to make the ZTL chip.
Bizen applies quantum mechanics to any wafer process technology. Bizen ZTL chips require fewer processing layers, enabling complex devices to be manufactured in large-geometry fabs around the world.
Summerland continued: “A 180nm fab using ITM35 delivering ZTL chips with the equivalent performance of 35nm CMOS will have ten times fewer process steps than an actual 35nm CMOS process, resulting in a 10 fold reduction in production time. This translates into a 40 to 50 fold increase in net profit for the Bizen-converted fab. At the same time, this massively contributes to solving semiconductor shortages.”
The Bizen process can run on standard silicon process technologies using standard CMOS processing equipment. Bizen has been in development at a UK fab for four years and SFN has produced ‘gold standard’ test wafers, which have been characterized. The extracted characterization data has been put into a JMP data book and used to produce SPICE models which run in the Cadence design environment and matches the results from the Synopsis wafer process flow.
Summerland concluded: “We are aware of CMOS technology roads stretching out to at least 2036 with device geometries down to two angstroms. It is important to understand CMOS is logic, MOS a transistor. Even CFETS are stacked nMOS and pMOS. Bizen/ZTL is a huge step forward and will render other complex approaches redundant. Zpolar transistors move away from a reliance on the unipolar structure of CMOS, to take advantage of an inherent hair trigger input and minimized vertical size.
“We believe Time Machine is the best description for the compound combination of the Bizen wafer process, Zpolar transistor and Zpolar Tunnel Logic (ZTL). Using this technology, IC designers can go back 10-years in manufacturing capabilities, then forward 10-years (or more) in performance terms, with the ZTL devices they create. Since the ICs are so much simpler to produce and/or more chips can be made per wafer, we are also solving the semiconductor shortage crisis and eliminating our reliance on foreign powers and their roads. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
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