Oki Ships World's First Commercial, Fully Depleted SOI LSIs

"We are a front-runner in the technology of fully depleted SOI-based LSI products, which are known to have significant performance advantages. We are proud that Oki's expertise has enabled us to expand the use of such LSI products to encompass a wide range of commercial applications," said Fumio Ichikawa, General Manager of the VLSI Research Center at Oki Electric.

Fully depleted SOI technology offers the advantage of high-speed performance with low power consumption. However, such SOI-based LSIs require highly accurate process technology, to allow for the creation of devices on very thin silicon layers of less than 50nm. Oki has developed technologies for stable low-resistance source and drain formation and contact hole formation on the silicon layer of ultra-thin UNIBOND^®SOI wafers, manufactured by the French company Soitec, and Oki has now succeeded in producing these fully depleted SOI-based LSIs in volume.

Compared with the conventional bulk COMS LSI technologies, fully depleted SOI technology permits the reduction of LSI power consumption by 75% of former levels. Oki has used this technology in advanced applications such as solar-cell watches, which works without the need to change batteries through the combined use of solar energy and energy-saving SOI LSIs.

Furthermore, Oki intends to expand its business activities that are based upon fully depleted SOI technology. The company is now applying this technology, which represents superior high-frequency characteristics under low voltage, to radio frequency (RF) devices for short-distance wireless communication. The commercialization of such RF devices is targeted for the second half of the fiscal year ending March 2003.

"By combining Oki's expertise in wireless, communications, and information-systems technologies with SOI technology, our target is to promote our SOI business by focusing on mobile and personal-information terminal markets. And in 2004, Oki intends to manufacture 10 billion yen worth of SOI-based LSIs at Miyagi Oki Electric, a wholly owned subsidiary," said Ichikawa.

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With more than 25,000 employees worldwide, Oki Electric provides customers with top-quality products and technologies for telecommunication systems, information systems and electronic devices.

Glossary
Silicon-on-insulator (SOI):
Substrates with a thin silicon layer on an insulation film, or devices built on these substrates. MOS transistors produced with SOI have superior performance in low operation voltage. There are fully depleted SOIs and partially depleted SOIs. Fully depleted SOIs realize both low operation voltage and low load capacitance simultaneously, but require a very thin silicon layer for forming transistors, which is 50 nm or less.

Notes:

• UNIBOND is a registered trademark of Soitec.
• Other names of companies and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies.