Semicon West, San Francisco, CA  -- July 16, 2001  -- IMEC, Europe's leading independent center for microelectronics and ICT R&D, and Philips Research today announce that first functional 100nm CMOS devices came out of IMEC’s clean room facility, achieving electrical performance that meets the requirements of the ITRS (International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors).

IMEC and Philips Research went into a strategic alliance beginning 2000 to explore the key processing and integration steps required for 100nm CMOS technology. The technology is based on a scaled-down version of planar CMOS such as 130nm and is being optimized for both low-leakage and high-performance applications.

To scale the existing processing steps to the 100nm node, the gate stack was optimized with special attention paid to the development of new gate dielectric recipes, and source/drain engineering was performed using ultra-low energy implantation and super HALOs in conjunction with spike anneal. Advanced cobalt salicidation based on Ti-capping layer has been integrated for further progress of the technology node. Nitrided oxides were optimized to reduce gate leakage and to have better immunity to boron penetration. Significant improvements in device performance were obtained by thinning the gate dielectric from 2nm to 1.5nm.

Drive currents of 840µA/µm for NMOS and 350µA/µm for PMOS were obtained at VDD=1.2V and an off-state current of 20nA/µm. “The achieved electrical performance meets the ITRS requirements and demonstrates that a successful first step has been made in the joint exploration of the 100nm technology at IMEC and Philips Research,” say Prof. Gilbert Declerck, President and CEO of IMEC and Dr. Carel van der Poel, Vice President of Philips Research.

Regarding further integration of the 100nm front-end process, a major effort is being devoted to both back-end-of-line modules, that includes copper interconnects and low-k dielectrics, and STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) scaling.

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Notes to editors:

About IMEC

IMEC was founded in 1984 and today is Europe's leading independent research center for the development and licensing of microelectronics, and information and communication technologies (ICT). IMEC is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and has a staff of more than 1100 people including more than 350 industrial residents. Its more than $100 million revenue is derived from agreements and contracts with Flemish government, the EC, MEDEA, the European Space Agency, equipment and material suppliers and semiconductor companies worldwide. IMEC's activities concentrate on design of integrated information and communication systems; silicon process technology; silicon technology and device integration; microsystems, components and packaging; advanced training in microelectronics. IMEC has a sub-0.25µm 200mm pilot line and is ISO9001 certified. News from IMEC is located at www.imec.be.

About Philips Research

Philips Research is part of Royal Philips Electronics. Besides the main laboratory in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, there are Research laboratories in France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America (collectively some 3,000 people). Philips Research concentrates on investigating promising options for innovations, which are turned into new or improved products of the Philips product divisions. About 0.9% of sales of Philips is spent on these corporate research activities, while total R&D efforts amount to approximately 6% of sales.

More information on Philips Research on: www.research.philips.com

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world’s biggest electronics companies and Europe’s largest, with sales of EUR 37.9 billion in 2000. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 219,400 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, and medical systems. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges.

News from Philips is located at: www.news.philips.com

For more information:

Katrien Marent                                                                                    Dr Koen Joosse

Communication Manager                                                                 External communications

Public Relations and Marketing Communications                       Philips Research Public Relations

IMEC, Kapeldreef 75                                                                         Prof. Holstlaan 4 (WB 22)

B- 3001 Leuven, Belgium                                                                  NL-5656 AA Eindhoven

Tel +32 16 28 18 80                                                                            Tel +31.40 27 43 703

Fax +32 16 28 16 37                                                                          Fax +31.40 27 43 021

Email: Katrien.Marent@imec.be                                                     Email: Koen.Joosse@philips.com