Silicon On Insulator - Use in The Microelectronics Industry

Use in The Microelectronics Industry

IBM began to use SOI in the high-end RS64-IV "Istar" PowerPC-AS microprocessor in 2000. Other examples of microprocessors built on SOI technology include AMD's 130 nm, 90 nm, 65 nm, 45 nm and 32 nm single, dual, quad, six and eight core processors since 2001. Freescale adopted SOI in their PowerPC 7455 CPU in late 2001, currently Freescale is shipping SOI products in 180 nm, 130 nm, 90 nm and 45 nm lines. The 90 nm Power Architecture based processors used in the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii use SOI technology as well. Competitive offerings from Intel, however, such as the 65 nm Core 2 and Core 2 Duo microprocessors, are built using conventional bulk CMOS technology. Intel's new 45 nm process will continue to use conventional technology. In January, 2005 Intel researchers reported on an experimental single-chip silicon rib waveguide Raman laser built using SOI.

In November 2010, several news sources indicated that Intel may switch to SOI for the 22 nm node. More recently, Intel announced it will not go to SOI at 22 nm due to costs, and instead has used FinFET technology in Ivy Bridge.

On the foundry side, July 2006 TSMC claimed no customer wanted SOI, but Chartered Semiconductor devoted a whole fab to SOI.