In the race to achieve further miniaturization TMSC, the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer, has made a strategic choice. The Taiwan-based firm wants to start production of integrated circuits using the multiple-electron-beam direct write (MEBDW) system. To design the maskless lithography system, enabling the fabrication of circuits with 22 nanometre details, TMSC has joined Imagine, an R&D programme led by CEA-Leti. The Grenoble based electronics and information technology laboratory currently owns more than 1,400 patent families. Over a three-year period it will give TMSC the benefit of its micro and nano-electronics expertise and research facilities in the furtherance of its industrial ambitions, namely to bring MEBDW up to operational speed, while adapting production tools and processes. Ultimately this technology should achieve resolutions of as tiny as one nanometre.
In preparation for developments that are bound to alter fabrication processes TSMC is counting on France and Grenoble-Isere to set in motion the technological changes on which tomorrow’s circuits will be founded, while consolidating its leadership position.