Samsung Electronics Co Ltd says it has completed development of chip manufacturing processes that will enable it to produce 4Gbit – 400Mb -memory chips at 0.13 microns using conventional KrFExcimer lithography equipment. It claims it is the first company to have completed development of these processes. For comparison a human hair is 100 microns thick. Samsung will outline its technology at a VLSI Symposium in Hawaii this week. Samsung says the process offers 30% greater integration than its 0.18 micron technique for producing 1Gbit parts unveiled in 1996. It says it’s produced 16Mb DRAM chips with 0.13 micron circuitry. It says the technology will reduce the need for massive outlay on new electron beam, ArF Excimers (with a wavelength of 193 nanometers), X-ray (0.7 to 1.2 nm) and other next-generation etching processes and will enable it to bring 4Gbit DRAM to market three years earlier than expected. Samsung says such a device can store 32,000 newspaper pages.
