New smaller transistor geometry developed

["Mark Tillotson" <markt@xxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

I ran across the following and thought there might be some interest:

BERKELEY-- Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, announced
today (Monday, Nov. 22) the creation of a new type of semiconductor
transistor...

Details of the prototype transistor, called "FinFET," will be presented for
the first time on Dec. 7 by co-developer Xuejue Huang, a UC Berkeley
graduate student, at the International Electronic Devices Meeting in
Washington, D.C.

The breakthrough is due to a change in the design of the transistor "gate,"
or switch, that controls the flow of current in the electronic devices. ...

The new UC Berkeley design, however, uses a fork-shaped prong that straddles
both sides of the current channel. This improves control and reduces current
leakage so that the gate, and thus the transistor, can be made much smaller.

...

The FinFET has a 18-nanometer-long gate....

The prototype was successfully fabricated last July and shows good
performance characteristics, Hu said. No patent has been taken on the
device.

"We made the decision not to patent," Hu said. "We want the widest possible
usage. We hope this becomes a mainstream transistor structure in the
future."

see full text at:
http://www.urel.berkeley.edu/urel_1/CampusNews/PressReleases/releases/11-22-
1999b.html