White Paper for:
Ultimate CMOS Research Center

Overview

SRC's Device Sciences area is soliciting white papers proposing a new multi-university Research Center in the area of technologies needed to extend CMOS to its limit of scaling. The principal goal of this discovery-driven program is to extend CMOS to and beyond the 22-nm node of the current ITRS roadmap. It is particularly intended to address the research needs associated with the front-end aspects of extending CMOS technology. Areas covered include transistor structures, front-end materials, and front-end processes as well as associated metrology and characterization.

This call for white papers, issued to universities worldwide, should be addressed by multi-university, multi-disciplinary research teams. A successful white paper submission is expected to result in an invitation to submit a full proposal, in a competitive procurement, leading to one contract for a new "Ultimate CMOS Device and Technology Research Center." The funding amount for this Center is anticipated to be $1.3 million per year for three years beginning July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2009, extendable an additional two years ending June 30, 2011. Proposals should offer substantial funding leverage that is firmly committed by the source for the duration of this program.

Concurrently, we are also soliciting white papers from single investigators each proposing a research task addressing one or more of the defined research needs. The funding amount anticipated for these contracts is $80 - $120K per year. White papers selected from these submissions most likely will result in individual research contracts. The number and funding amount of the contracts awarded will be determined by the amount of available funds and by the number of high quality proposals received.

Depending on the quality of proposals and the funds available, SRC may decide to pursue all, some or none of the proposed projects. SRC may also elect to negotiate a project's research scope or a team's composition to meet funding or synergy goals.

Research Needs

Specific, prioritized "Ultimate CMOS Device and Technology" Research Needs are detailed in a report (see below) recently prepared by Device Science's CMOS Extension Task Force. This report is an update to a similar report, produced in November 2002. Areas covered include transistor structures, front-end materials, and front-end processes as well as associated metrology and characterization. It is noted that a new area of interest is the use of group III-V semiconductors as new channel materials. This is driven by the need to enhance channel transport as well as to reduce power dissipation resulting from lower power-supply voltage, enabled by the use of low bandgap materials. The impact of device structures and related process technologies on device variation is also important and will be considered. Areas not covered include lithography, device modeling, and back-end processes. Another area also not covered is circuit design and/or circuit techniques to overcome detrimental transistor leakage and power dissipation. Although these are all very important areas that need to be addressed in extending CMOS, they are beyond the scope of the SRC Device Sciences Digital CMOS thrust. Although these Research Needs are divided into several categories (e.g., device structures, gate stack, junctions and contacts, etc.), we strongly encourage comprehensive research that bridges across areas to deliver fundamental understanding of integrated technology solutions to enable scaling of CMOS to and beyond the 22nm technology node.

• 2005 CMOS Extension Research Needs
• 2002 CMOS Extension Research Needs

Additional Information

In conjunction with this SRC-supported Research Center, SRC and SEMATECH will collaborate to initiate a new "Ultimate CMOS Device and Technology Transition Center." Beginning in calendar year 2007, this Transition Center will provide additional support to further address manufacturing issues for those Research Center projects and investigators having high potential for success in advancing ultimate scaling of CMOS. The Transition and Research Centers will share the same university Center Director and will be annually reviewed concurrently; however, they will be funded through separate contracts. The Transition Center will be funded for three years, extendable an additional two years beginning at that time when promising research tasks supported in the Research Center become ready for additional work to address issues related to manufacturability, but no later than one year following initiation of the Research Center. The initial funding of this Transition Center is anticipated to be between $400 to $600K per year and may grow to $1 million or more per year beginning the third year. White papers submitted in response to this solicitation for the Research Center should anticipate initiating and operating this additional Transition Center but not actually propose the Transition Center; this will be the subject of a separate proposal solicited from the Director of the Research Center in 2007.

White Paper Guidelines

Responses are to be submitted as single PDF (or MS-Word) documents generated with 10 point or larger fonts and must be submitted via the SRC Web site. Limit document size to 5 pages for the multi-university research center and 2 pages for an individual single investigator proposed task, sized to the US standard (8.5 by 11 inches). Non-compliance with these guidelines may exclude white papers from consideration.

Please include the following identifying information in your white paper:

• Project title
• Investigator(s)
• University (ies)
• Principal Author telephone number, mailing address, and e-mail address

Please address the following topics in your white paper:

• Background/context: emphasis area and problem to be addressed
• Objective: what you plan to accomplish in a three-year program
• Rationale: value in terms of semiconductor industry needs
• Novelty: role of this research in advancing knowledge and state-of-the-art
• Approach: strategy for addressing the problem; describe important findings from your research to date
• Results: anticipated output of a successful effort
• Engagement: your plan for integration with SRC member companies
• Students: your plan for involvement and education of graduate students (a key SRC goal)
• Funding Request Amount: a per-year approximation of overall funding requirements (university approval and official budgets are not required at this time)
• IP: identify any pre-existing intellectual property

Awardees will be expected to:

• Disclose blocking background intellectual property
• Update information about participating students
• Submit publications resulting from sponsored research
• Participate in annual research reviews
• Provide annual reports and pre-defined deliverables

Timetable and Deadlines

Please direct all technical questions to Dr. James Hutchby, (james.hutchby@src.org).
All other questions and responses should be directed to Jennifer Bennett, (jennifer.bennett@src.org).