Infineon Technical Presentations at IEDM 2002: Papers Reinforce Leadership in DRAM Technology, Highlight Cutting Edge Research In Biochips, Flexible Circuits and RF Design

Dec 9, 2002 | Market News

Munich, Germany and San Francisco – December 9, 2002 – This edition of the Infineon Technologies News Alert service provides a synopsis of presentations by company researchers at IEDM 2002, a premier technical conference of the electronic device industry.

Infineon Technologies is well represented at the 2002 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), in San Francisco from December 9 – 11, with company researchers presenting nine reports on technology development and new research. The scope of presentations includes three papers on research directed at extending the design and fabrication of DRAM chips to chip feature size of less than 70 nanometers (about one-half of the size of today’s smallest production chips). Scientists from Infineon also are presenting several additional papers: from advances in Silicon Germanium circuit fabrication and microelectronic machine (MEMS) for radio frequency applications, to printing of circuits on plastic films and completely electronic detection of DNA samples using “biochip” circuits.

The titles, and short summaries, of each paper are listed here:

DRAM Technology Developments


The research and development programs supporting Infineon’s trench capacitor DRAM products are aimed at strengthening the company’s technology and production cost leadership positions for computer memory products.

Fully Depleted Surrounding Gate Transistor (SGT) for 70nm DRAM and Beyond (Session 10.8): Describes successful development of a novel trench capacitor memory cell for a target feature-size of less than 70 nm. The concept is to use a fully- depleted (yields excellent drive capability) vertical (yields excellent packing density) array device. This potentially enables memory chips with more than 200 percent greater capacity than today, without changing the size of the chip.

A Fully Integrated Al2O3 Trench Capacitor DRAM for Sub-100nm Technology (Session 33.6): Presents results of work to use Al2O3 as “high-k” capacitor dielectric material in the trench DRAM process as replacement for today’s standard nitride-oxide . This will enable further reduction in feature size to well below 100nm without sacrificing operating characteristics and performance of the finished chips. A Feature Scale Model for Trench Capacitor Etch Rate and Profile (Session 35.5) describes two computer modeling applications that enable efficient design of high-density trench technology DRAM memory arrays.

Leading Research on the Cutting Edge


Infineon’s R&D programs follow the parallel paths of support for the chip technologies of today, and the emerging markets and chip technology applications that will shape people’s lives in the future.

Fully Electronic DNA Detection on a CMOS Chip: Device and Process Issues (Session 19.2): This invited paper, presented by Infineon and industry partners, describes the integration of DNA sensor on a low-cost CMOS chip. The technology is making it possible to create new types of biochemical and medical diagnostic test technologies for scientific research and, ultimately, personal health care.

Polymer Gate Dielectric Pentacene TFTs and Circuits on Flexible Substrates (Session 22.1): Describes new advances in production of integrated circuits on flexible, low-cost polymeric materials instead of rigid silicon chips, which will open up new markets for electronic technologies, such as electronic bar codes. Infineon researchers and industry partners have developed what may be the fastest circuits ever fabricated on flexible organic (and thus low-cost) polymer materials.

Sub 5 ps SiGe Bipolar Technology (Session 31.1): Silicon Germanium is one of today’s leading edge materials for the production of high-speed radio frequency chips used for mobile communications. Infineon researchers will describe new circuit designs that push the technology’s performance to new levels of efficiency.

About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure mobile solutions as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2002 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.21 billion with about 30,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Information Number

INFCPR200212.027e