A 65nm logic technology featuring 35nm gate lengths, enhanced channel strain, 8 Cu interconnect layers, low-k ILD and 0.57 μm2 SRAM cell

A 65nm generation logic technology with 1.2nm physical gate oxide, 35nm gate length, enhanced channel strain, NiSi, 8 layers of Cu interconnect, and low-k ILD for dense high performance logic is presented. Transistor gate length is scaled down to 35nm while not scaling the gate oxide as a means to improve performance and reduce power. Increased NMOS and PMOS drive currents are achieved by enhanced channel strain and junction engineering. 193nm lithography along with APSM mask technology is used on critical layers to provide aggressive design rules and a 6-T SRAM cell size of 0.57μm². Process yield, performance and reliability are demonstrated on a 70 Mbit SRAM test vehicle with >0.5 billion transistors.