High performance 0.18 μm SOI CMOS technology

A 0.18 μm SOI CMOS technology is presented. Key features in this technology are: more aggressive gate lithography (equivalent to 0.15 μm half pitch generation) and device than previously reported 0.18 μm CMOS technology, low dose SIMOX SOI substrate, dual gate oxide, low ε BEOL insulator, and 7 layer copper metalization. Inverter delay of less than 6.5 ps has been achieved with this technology. A POWER4 test chip was built using the 0.18 μm SOI technology and has demonstrated performance above 1 GHz.