Aiming at a BreakthroughCurrent Status of the Division of SiliconTechnology, and Outlook for the Future
Akira Toriumi
Chief, Division of Silicon Technology
The Japan Society of Applied Physics

The Silicon Technology Division was established as a Professional Group in 1998, and waspromoted to the status of Division 1999. It iscurrently comprised of more than 600 members,
and is extremely active in a variety of fields. Silicon Technologies encompass a very broad range of technical fields. In fact, the areas within theDivision itself are so diverse that a committee system has been established
to allow greater focus on areas ranging from materials to process anddevices. The Division is currently comprised of eight Committees: Lithography, ULSI devices, Surfaces / Interfaces / Silicon Materials, Multilayer
Wiring Systems, Modeling, Junction Technologies, Silicon Nano-technologies, and Nano / Micro-fabrication. One of the most unique characteristics of this Division is the lively meetings hosted by the each Committee,
which enables horizontal and vertical connections among a diverse rangeof technical fields. These meetings were held about once each month.
Each meeting has an average of about 50 participants, and each year
nearly 800 pages of materials are prepared in Japanese in relation to themeeting proceedings. Sometimes the meetings include discussions on
new technologies based on materials gathered by researchers in related
fields, while other meetings provide overviews of research presented at
notable international conferences, such as IEDM and the VLSI Symposium.
The various committees plan and propose these meetings to respond to
the needs of Division members. Workshops and international conferencesthat transcend the boundaries of Committees and even Divisions are also
held independently and jointly with other organizations, with a focus onspecified themes. Some of the more well-established events include theInternational Workshop of Junction Technology (IWJT), the Advanced
Metallization Conference (ADMETA), and the International Workshop
on Dielectric Thin Films for Future ULSI Devices (IWDTF). The Gate Stack
Technology Workshop, a domestic conference, is also held every year.
Recently, given the unique characteristics of this field, an increasing
number of conferences have been held jointly with the Silicon Device andMaterials (SDM) Committee in the Institute of Electronics Information andCommunication Engineers (IEICE).
It goes without saying that silicon technologies are closely tied in withthe silicon LSI industry. Although the development of ULSI technologies isoften said to have reached a limit, it seems that these limits have always
been overcome through further technological developments. This does
not necessarily mean, however, that the same will continue to happen in
the future. We are already approaching atom-level sizes in the context ofminiaturization. At the laboratory level, research is being conducted ontransistors with gate lengths of less than 10nm, and on the applicationlevel, there are requirements for silicon dioxide gate insulator film with athickness of less than 1nm. In order to overcome these limits, studies are
ongoing not only regarding miniaturization, but regarding the introduc-tion and development of new material technologies. Research and development has been conducted targeting silicon dioxide gate insulator filmwith high dielectric constants, it is now possible to intentionally add strain
to the silicon substrates to increase mobility. These new technologies areincreasing the scope of applied physics and promoting further development of material technologies and manufacturing technologies, and havebecome a central theme of silicon-related technologies at JSAP as well.
There are people who will say off-handedly that “Silicon is finished,” butin fact, we have just reached a point where silicon researchers are being
tested, and where the technologies are starting to get really interesting. In
the past, most research in silicon technologies was conducted by corporations, and it was often difficult for university research to see its day inthe sun; at least not directly. As a result, it was fairly rare for university
research in new fields related to silicon to receive national level support,and researchers were relatively few in number. What is truly needed now,
however, is new research in materials, processes, devices, and circuits —research that is firmly rooted in the fundamentals. It stands to reason that
this research will form the core of the new information technologies ofthe future. It can be hard to categorize the quality of research, but there
is little doubt if universities do not invest energy into research in thesefields, the future of these technologies will be put into question.
The unique characteristic of this field is that it incorporates all levels,from pure fundamental research to commercial products, and this characteristic has promoted a broader scope and greater dynamism amongresearchers. Products that use ULSI technologies obviously use silicon technologies, but they use other technologies as well; recently, an extremely
close connection has developed between silicon technologies and biotechnologies. In that sense, a unique feature of this field is that rather thanfocusing on whether the research is basic or complex, if something isrelated to silicon technologies, then a strong relationship is developed, andresearch is conducted using any means available, as long as those means
prove to be useful. Individual technologies must naturally demonstrate
depth, but trying to confine silicon technologies to a limited field induces
a kind of siege mentality. Before we know it, silicon substrates could form
the base for installations of compound semiconductor transistors, lasers,or bio/organic devices. Of course, plasma is used in production, as is ultrathin film technologies. Even as we focus on establishing firm foundations
for next-generation silicon ULSI technologies, we must incorporate effective technologies regardless of the field, and demonstrate the functions ofsilicon as a “priming agent” for the creation of cross-cutting technologies
that bind other technologies together. We must create new frontier fields inapplied physics, develop new industrial technologies, and conduct research
while promoting exchanges with many interdisciplinary fields. Achieving
these goals will act as the driving force behind silicon technologies in the21st century.

JSAP International No.14 (July 2006)

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