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However, 130-nm devices are now on the market, and it turns out that the prediction was wrong. Co.`s prodt with a dielectric constant of 2.6--is the only low-k material in use today, in 130-nm chips made by customers. All of the 15 or so other companies making advanced semiconductors are sticking with FSG.
Furthermore, Co.`s competitors claim that prodt.`s use by its adopters is limited to certain high-end applications. And even Co acknowledges that not as many firms adopted prodt. as originally expected, with a notable loss--United Microelectronics. Finding a permanent replacement for SiO2 turned out to be difficult because of drawbacks with new materials such as low strength, low adhesion, and a tendency to poison photoresists. Co. points out, dielectrics aren't like semiconductor materials such as photoresists and cleaning chemicals that are removed during fabrication. "The dielectric is there forever," he says, "so it must withstand all subsequent stresses in chip manufacture." Although most of the semiconductor industry rode FSG through the 130-nm generation, it is faced with the low-k challenge again for the 90- and 100-nm chips that are being developed now and will be coming out in a few years. This time FSG just won't do the trick, and semiconductor makers are facing an array of new materials from which to choose. ONE OF THEM, of course, is Co.`s prodt. Co says those firms that adopted it at 130 nm will stick with prodt. at 100 nm, reaping the benefits of being early adopters. He expects at least two more firms to climb aboard as well.
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