Strained Silicon to Perpetuate Moore's Law

An anonymous reader noted a story floating around about a new technology known as strained silicon (or maybe 'Stained' since the article calls it both ;) which AMD & IBM figure will make CPUs 24% faster. A little bit on how it works as well, but not much substance.

Comments

not just Strained Si, but DSL

[tubbtubb]

Strained Si methods have been around for awhile. The PowerPC 970FX uses it, for example.
This method (called DSL, or "dual stress liner", not only stretches
the NFETs, it compresses the PFETs.
See a better article here.

Also, IBM is awesome.

IBM Does it again

[Erect Horsecock]

Strained silicon is not new tech, it's a couple of years old. The idea (at least the way IBM does it) the silicon wafer is "doped" with germanium which causes the lattice of the Si atoms to spread out further which allows carriers to travel faster across the transistor.
The germanium is removed to help improve power consumption even further and lower core temps. This is where the IBM and Intel process differ. Intel does not remove the doping material from the wafers, and well... We see how that has affected their CPUs at 90 NM.
The new process only dopes the silicon under certain types of ICs and not others..

Actually Zdnet described it better so I'll just quote them

In DSL, different straining materials are applied to the top of the transistor layer and then etched away from where they aren't needed or from where they can even degrade performance. Materials that create tensile strain to benefit N-channel transistors are applied across the surface of the wafer; chemical etching then removes those materials away from the P-channel transistors.

Subsequently, a layer of material for compressing the silicon lattice, which benefits the P-channel transistors, is applied and etched. The materials for straining N-channel or P-channel transistors can be applied in either order.

"On the P-channel transistors, you want to increase the density of atoms because the holes can move more quickly," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64.

Kepler did not disclose the materials used but said they were fairly conventional nitride films and inexpensive. Plus, applying the straining materials after the transistor layer is complete is easier.

If anything this will finally allow for a G5 Powerbook and a

Doesn't make cpu's 24% faster

[neomage86]

This technique will allow transistors to react 24% faster. That doesn't neccesarily translate into faster cpus. For example, if this makes transistors run hotter, they will have to lower density. Furthermore, Intel already uses a version of this.

Spelling Errors?

[Grey_14]

It Really really makes me sad, to see CmdrTaco making a jab at someone elses spelling error...