6.

012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 11

Lecture 1 6.012 Overview

September 8, 2005

Contents:

1. The microelectronics revolution

2. Keys to the microelectronics revolution
3. Contents of 6.012

Reading assignment:

Howe and Sodini, Ch. 1

Announcement:

In Homework 1, need to use the MIT Microelectronics

WebLab. Go to <http://ilab.mit.edu> to get account.
 6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 12

1. The microelectronics revolution

Microelectronics in the news:

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

"Intel's Andrew Grove," TIME, December 29, 1997.

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

"The astonishing microchip," The Economist, March 23, 1996.

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 13

6.012: introductory subject to microelectronic devices

and circuits

Microelectronics is cornerstone of:

Computing revolution

Communications revolution

Consumer electronics revolution

Microelectronics: cornerstone of computing revolution

In last 30 years, computer performance per dollar has

improved more than a million fold!
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 14

Microelectronics: cornerstone of communications rev

olution

In last 20 years, communication bandwidth through a

single optical ber has increased by tenthousand fold.
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 15

Si digital microelectronics today

Take the cover o a microprocessor. What do you see?

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

[Intel Pentium IV]

A thick web of interconnects, many levels deep

High density of very small transistors
 6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 16

Interconnects

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

Image of IBM copper interconnect process can be found at:

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=750

______________________________________

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

Image of SEM cross-section of CMOS 7S copper process can be found at:
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=750
______________________________________

Today, as many as 8 levels of interconnect using Cu.

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 17

Transistor size scaling

Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

2orders of magnitude reduction in transistor size in 30

years.
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 18

Evolution of transistor density

Moores Law:

doubling of transistor density every 1.5 years

4orders of magnitude improvement in 30 years.

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 19

Benets of continuous integration

Exponential improvements in:

system performance
costperfunction
powerperfunction
system reliability

Experimental SOI IBM microprocessor. Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 110

Clock speed

4order of magnitude improvement in 30 years

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 111

Transistor Cost

3order of magnitude reduction in 30 years

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 112

Cost per function

4order of magnitude reduction in 30 years

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 113

2. Keys to the microelectronics revolution

1. Silicon

Cheap and abundant

Amazing mechanical, chemical and electronic proper
ties
Probably, the material best known to humankind
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 114

2. MOSFET

MOSFET =

MetalOxideSemiconductor FieldEect Transistor

Good gain, isolation, and speed

MOSFET = switch
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 115

3. MOSFET scaling

MOSFET performance improves as size is decreased:

shorter switching time

lower power consumption
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 116

90 nm NMOS

Courtesy of Intel Corporation. Used with permission.

[Picture from: http://www.intel.com/technology/silicon/micron.htm]

6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 117

4. CMOS

CMOS = Complementary MetalOxideSemiconductor

Complementary switch activates with V < 0

Logic without DC power consumption
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 118

NMOS and PMOS can be fabricated sidebyside in a

very compact way
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 119

5. Microfabrication technology

1 Gbit DRAM from IBM. Image removed due to copyright restrictions.

Tight integration of dissimilar devices with good iso

lation
Fabrication of extremely small structures, precisely
and reproducibly
Highvolume manufacturing of complex systems with
high yield
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 120

6. Circuit engineering

Simple device models that:

are based on physics
allow analog and digital circuit design
permit assessment of impact of device variations on
circuit performance

Circuit design techniques that:

are tolerant to logic level uctuations, noise and crosstalk
are insensitive to manufacturing variations
require little power consumption

+2.5 V

+1.0 V M2
IREF Q4

RS
M1
0V
vs + +

RL= 1 k vOUT
VBIAS +
1.0 V
M3

2.5 V
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 121

3. Contents of 6.012

Deals with microelectronic devices...

semiconductor physics
metaloxidesemiconductor eldeect transistor (MOS
FET)
bipolar junction transistor (BJT)

... and microelectronic circuits

digital circuits (mainly CMOS)

analog circuits (BJT and MOS)
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 122

One shouldnt work on semiconductors, that is a lthy

mess; who knows if they really exist!

Wolfgang Pauli, 1931

(Nobel Prize, Physics, 1945)
6.012 Microelectronic Devices and Circuits Fall 2005 Lecture 123

To the electron may it never be of any use to anybody.

favorite toast at annual dinners

at Cavendish Laboratory,
early 1900s