Overview

Background Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials provide an emerging technology for high-density, high-performance, special-purpose integrated circuits (ICs). These useful SOI properties are fundamentally derived from the capability of total electrical isolation of silicon areas and from the qualitative reduction of junction areas. We illustrate this in Fig. 1, where a bulk complementary MOS cross section is compared to an equivalent SOI structure. Bulk CMOS is used for comparison since the most likely initial impact of SOI is special-purpose integrated circuits, such as three-dimensional circuits, high-voltage transistors, or radiation-tolerant devices. The extraordinary success for dynamic RAM technology presents a formidable barrier for any new competitor in packing density, whereas, in other areas, SOI has special characteristics that will provide it with some advantage.