Belgium's Imec partners with Taiwan's TSMC on transistor technology

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Belgium-based Imec said Monday it has partnered with TSMC and ASML to advance 2D-material transistor development using scalable 12-inch wafer integration technology.

Imec said the collaboration was presented at the IEEE JSAP Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits, per CNA. The research targets next-generation n-type and p-type field-effect transistors based on 2D materials, which are ultra-thin substances only a few atoms thick.

The team demonstrated scaled nFETs with a 50 nm gate pitch using molybdenum disulfide as the channel material. It also developed pFETs using tungsten disulfide and tungsten diselenide, both of which showed strong current-voltage performance.

Imec said the results mark a key step in moving 2D-material transistors from laboratory research to wafer-scale manufacturing. It said the technology could support highly scaled logic devices, back-end processes, and backside integration.

TSMC Vice President of Research and Development Tsao Min (曹敏) said the collaboration will help accelerate semiconductor innovation. He said the goal is to reduce risk and speed the transition of new materials “from lab to fab.”

ASML said 2D transition metal dichalcogenide materials could one day outperform silicon in making smaller and more powerful transistors. It added that extreme ultraviolet lithography has already enabled progress, including devices with transistor channel lengths down to 28 nm.