Process variation threatens to slow down and even pause chip miniaturization
Tuesday, January 5, 2016 - 08:34
in Physics & Chemistry
For past several decades, the processor industry has enjoyed the benefits of chip miniaturization and the exponential increase in the number of on-chip transistors as predicted by Moore's law. However, as process technology scales to small feature sizes, precise control of fabrication processes has become increasingly difficult. As a result, 'process variation' (PV), which refers to the deviation in parameters from their nominal specifications, has greatly exacerbated.