SAN JOSE -- Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. today announced plans to become one of the first chip makers to ramp production of 0.07-micron (70-nanometer) gate-length transistors for processor-class products, using phase-shifting photomask technology from San Jose-based Numerical Technologies Inc.

UMC, the world's second largest pure-play silicon foundry company, said it will apply Numerical's patented "strong" phase-shifting mask technology to its 0.13-micron logic process to create physical gate lengths of 0.07 micron. The phase-shifting masks enable UMC to produce 0.07-micron gates with existing 248-nm lithography tools.

"We will be ramping this technology later this year in our 200-mm fabs," said Jim Ballingall, vice president of worldwide marketing at UMC. "Those wafers will be for processors with device transistor switching speeds under 9 picoseconds, as already verified by customers," said Ballingall, who is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. "We look to be ramping this technology in volume at the end of this year."

UMC, based in Hinschu, Taiwan, entered into a development agreement with Numerical Technologies in 1999. The foundry company had decided that 193-nm lithography tools and technologies would not be production ready for microprocessor-class products using its most aggressive gate lengths under 100 nm. "With out this phase-shifting technology, it would have been a problem to offer the most advanced gates," Ballingall noted.

UMC currently offers four varieties of physical gate lengths in its 0.13-micron WorldLogic foundry processes: 0.12-micron (for very low leakage devices); 0.10-micron (for low-leakage devices); 0.09-micron (standard speed devices); and the 0.07 micron gates (for MPUs). "My expectation is that 0.07 micron will become the gate length for standard or low-leakage devices in the 0.10-micron process generation," said Ballingall, suggesting that it the Numerical phase-shifting technology might move into higher volume products in the coming years.

UMC becomes the third chip maker to announce volume production plans using phase-shifting technology from Numerical. Two years ago, Motorola Inc. pushed its 0.18-micron process technology and 248-nm DUV lithography tools to 0.09 micron gate lengths using the "strong" phase-shifting technology (see February 1999 SBN story). About a year later, Texas Instruments Inc. announced it would use Numerical's phase-shifting technology to boost the performance of digital signal processors at the 0.13-micron technology node (see March 10, 2000, story).

Now UMC is the first to announced 0.07-micron gate lengths using the phase-shifting technology, said Y.C. Buno Pati, chief executive officer of Numerical. "There is development work underway at a number of companies in and around 70 nm--even smaller," he added. "We have achieved smaller than that in the laboratory, down to 25 nanometers."

San Jose-based Numerical Technologies believes phase-shifting masks will take off as chip makers face growing pressures to shrinking device feature sizes below the exposure wavelength of lithography. This "subwavelength" technology is growing partly because 193-nm scanners and supporting infrastructure are not yet ready for production, Pati said.

"Eight months to a year ago, we were saying that chip manufacturers would be doing 0.13-micron processes with 193-nm lithography," he recalls. "That was most of the industry's roadmap, but six to eight months ago plans started to change pretty dramatically because there was no way that 193-nm tools would be available, and anyone going to leading-edge now is using 248-nm lithography for 0.13 micron."

Even when the 193-nm exposure tools are ready for production, phase-shifting technologies will play an expanding role in chip production because device makers have pushed beyond the wavelength of exposure light in creating the smallest lines for gates, Pati noted. "By the time the 193-nm generation comes in it will focused on the 0.10-micron generation, and those gate lengths will be about 50-to-60 nanometers for leading-edge products," he added.