(PR) Elpida Uses High-k Metal Gate Technology to Develop 2-gigabit DDR2 Mobile RAM

Elpida Memory, Inc., Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), today announced the DRAM industry's first-ever use of high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology to develop a 2-gigabit DDR2 Mobile RAM (LPDDR2) at the 40nm-class DRAM node.

HKMG is technology that uses insulator film with a high dielectric constant (abbreviated to "high-k," a semiconductor industry measure of how much charge a material can hold) in the transistor gate to reduce current leakage and improve transistor performance. Metal gate electrodes that are required for the high-k dielectrics process are also used. Some makers of logic semiconductors have started to use HKMG, but higher heat treatment temperatures after HKMG formation and complicated DRAM structural characteristics have prevented consistent application in the DRAM fabrication process. Elpida, however, has managed to lower the heat treatment load and overcome certain memory device structural complications.

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