Infineon, IIT Bombay achieve major breakthrough for advanced CMOS technologies

BANGALORE & MUMBAI, INDIA: Infineon Technologies and IIT Bombay recently announced that a joint Infineon-IIT Bombay research team has achieved a major breakthrough in integration of high voltage functionality for advanced CMOS technologies.

The collaboration between Infineon and IIT Bombay, which began in 2007, conducts advanced research in the areas of IO device design and multi-gate MOSFETs for the sub 45nm node CMOS technologies.

A major break-through was recently achieved when the joint team of IIT Bombay and Infineon was able to explain the mechanisms behind electrostatic discharge (ESD) events in high voltage FET devices.

Weak ESD robustness against exposure to high ESD stress at the end-user side had been a roadblock for the construction of high voltage interfaces at 10 V and beyond in advanced CMOS technologies. The insight into the physics of the high voltage devices now allows the optimization of the layout of high voltage IO devices.

Based on this, high voltage functionality ranging from USB interfaces to high voltage line drivers can be integrated into “system-on-silicon” solutions in 45nm CMOS and below. The results will be presented at the International Reliability Physics Symposium 2009 at Montreal in April.

Previously, another outcome of this collaboration addressing the optimization of multi-gate MOSFET devices has been demonstrated at the International Electron Device Meeting in December 2008.

Dr. Harald Gossner, Senior Principal Engineer, who represents ESD research activity at Infineon stated that this is indeed one of finest examples of academia-industry interaction, which has resulted in a substantial value addition to the two collaborating partners. "This collaboration has been very helpful to us in understanding the complex nature of some of the existing device reliability issues, and the solutions proposed significantly improve our products”, Dr. Gossner said. “The high quality of the graduate students at IIT Bombay and their academic preparation has definitely been an asset to this projec," he added.

Dr. Rajiv Jain, Managing Director, Infineon Technologies India, said, "This project shows Infineon’s strong commitment to semiconductor innovation in India. In our Bangalore centre we are working on critical products in the areas of automotive electronics, broadband, mobile communications and secured chip cards. There is great potential for synergies with high caliber institutions like the IIT-B and I look forward to many more such innovations."

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, who is leading this effort from IIT Bombay, said that this collaboration has been extremely helpful in exposing them to challenging real world industry problems, and has provided them a chance to closely interact with one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies.

“Though we have been interacting with many semiconductor industries for a long time now, this interaction with Infineon is particularly different because of the immense trust Infineon had in our capabilities and the information that they were willing to share. Since the industries in the semiconductor business survive on their intellectual property (IP), it was important for us to realize the value of IP, and we sometimes had to go that extra mile in educating our students specifically on these aspects. We are happy that this interaction between IIT Bombay & Infineon is turning out to be a win-win situation for both the parties involved”, Prof. Rao stated.

Prof. Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay, added that the institute accords considerable importance to such interactions with the industry and that it particularly wishes to strengthen such collaborations as it provides the students an opportunity to conduct directed research.

“We are happy that investments we have recently made in strengthening the Nanoelectronics activities at IIT Bombay are really bearing fruit. We have world class research activities taking place in the Centre for Excellence in Nanoelectronics, and the new development is a testimony to the quality research being done”, he said.

There are currently four Ph.D. students supported by Infineon under this collaboration at IIT Bombay, including regular visits by these students to Infineon headquarters for internships.

India leads world in semicon: S. Janakiraman

Irrespective of the debate raging within the semicon community regarding the IC wafer fabs in India, the strength of and the talent within the Indian semiconductor industry has never ever been in doubt.

Delivering the welcome note at the recently held ISA Technovation 2008 awards ceremony at the Indian Institute of Science, S. Janakiraman, the former Chairman - India Semiconductor Association, and President & CEO – R&D services, MindTree Ltd, elaborated the fact that India now leads the world through execution of most complex and latest technology designs.

Former president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was the Chief Guest at the function.

Commenting on the ISA's role, Janakiraman said that it has been an industry driven body focused on the unique needs and progress of the semiconductor and related industries in India to make it vibrant and project India as a global leader. The ISA's journey began four years back, in late October 2004, in Bangalore, under the mentorship of Dr. Sridhar Mitta, when like minded industry leaders gathered together and debated how India can achieve leadership position in the semiconductor space similar to IT and software.

Janakiraman said: "We have come a long way since then and today ISA is recognized by everyone in the country and all such bodies outside, as the sole representation of the Indian semiconductor industry. This has been a significant achievement and made possible by all."

Today, there is a good presence of both Indian and MNC organizations, large as well as start-up companies, design, as well as manufacturing organizations, with the members of ISA now totaling 130! The ISA also works closely with central and state governments to give shape to the aspiration of our industry. It had played a key role in framing the semiconductor policy that enables larger investments in the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem.

He added: "India has excelled in areas that are knowledge intensive. Semiconductor design is no exception, and today, we lead the world through execution of most complex and latest technology designs. The market size of the IC design and embedded software industry in India was $6 billion in 2007 and has the potential to grow into $43 billion by 2015. It currently employs around 130,000 engineering professionals."

ISA Technovation Awards
One of the primary charters of the ISA is the talent initiative. This initiative focuses not only on generation of quality talent aligned to the needs of the industry, but also to recognize innovation and research, that further nurtures talent.

The Technovation Awards were created in 2007 to recognize excellence in Academia that has made us what we are today. These awards have been created to honour semiconductor research in India and to create role models in core technology areas.

The award categories are:
1. TechnoVisionary for life time achievement in the semiconductor area
2. TechnoShield for research entity, lab or a department for excellence in a semiconductor domain of interest
3. TechnoMentor for recognizing academician/researcher for contribution in the semiconductor area
4. TechnoInventor for individual excellence in doctoral/masters researchers

This year, ISA has created two special awards for recognizing researchers from Karnataka which have been instituted by VLSI 2007 committee, under two categories:

1. Best Faculty award
2. Best PG student award

The number of nominations went up multifold in this year and an able set of panelists had a tough task of selecting the award winners.

"Given the vibrant scenario of the industry and importance of the event, we have our great leader and visionary Dr. Abdul Kalam with us today evening to recognize the award winners in person'" added Janakiraman.

"Dr. Kalam had been a role model especially for the younger generation – who are the future of this country. Dr. Kalam has been a visionary and a great inspiration for the community present here. It is a great honour for ISA to have Dr. Kalam amongst us."

The Award Winners @ Technovation 2008

Technovisionary

Juzer M. Vasi, Deputy Director, Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Bombay

TechnoMentor

Bhargab B. Bhattacharya, Professor and Officiating Deputy Director, ISI Calcutta

TechnoShield 2008 (Rolling Shield)

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras -- Semiconductor Devices Circuits & Systems Group (SDCS)

TechnoInventors

(Ph. D category)

Debdeep Mukhopadhyay, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Thesis : Design and Analysis of Cellular Automata Based Cryptographic Algorithms

BP Harish, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Thesis: Process Variability –aware Performance Modeling in 65 nm CMOS

D. Mahaveer Sathaiya, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Thesis: Modeling of Gate Leakage in Aigan/Gan hemts and nitride oxides

(M Tech category)

Rakesh Gnana David J, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Thesis: Adaptive Keeper Design for Dynamic Logic Circuits Using Rate Sensing Technique

Nayan Bhogilal Patel, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Thesis: Performance Enhancement of the Tunnel Field Effect Transistor for Future Low Stand-by Power Applications

Former president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Chief Guest at the function, advised the Indian semiconductor industry to develop tailor-made chips so that electronic equipment could become more cheaper and competitive.