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US 7,679,145 B2Granted
Transistor performance enhancement using engineered strains
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsJun He, Zhiyong Ma, Jose A. Maiz, Mark Bohr, Martin D. Giles, Guanghai Xu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A semiconductor substrate having metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices, such as an integrated circuit die, is mechanically coupled to a stress structure to apply a stress that improves the performance of at least a portion of the MOS devices on the die.
Claims21
An apparatus comprising
- a die having a semiconductor substrate and metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices;
- a metal matrix stress structure with uniaxial carbon fibers mechanically coupled to the substrate and aligned with respect to the substrate so that under thermal expansion, the carbon fibers apply a uniaxial stress that improves the performance of at least a portion of the MOS devices.
An apparatus comprising:
- a semiconductor die comprising metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices;
- a heat spreader having a first coefficient of thermal expansion in one direction and a second different coefficient of thermal expansion in a second perpendicular direction, so that when coupled to the die the heat spreader applies a different stress to the die in the first direction than in the second direction;
- and
- a heat sink coupled to the heat spreader.
1 more element
An apparatus comprising:
- a die;
- a stress structure mechanically coupled to the die at a first temperature, the stress structure having a coefficient of thermal expansion different from the die;
- wherein the die and coupled stress structure are maintained at a second lower temperature, so that the stress structure applies a stress to the die at the second temperature through the mechanical coupling.
A computer system comprising:
- a motherboard;
- and
- a processor coupled to the motherboard, the processor having a die including a semiconductor substrate and metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) devices and a stress structure mechanically coupled to the substrate and aligned with respect to the substrate so that under thermal expansion, the stress structure applies a stress in one direction with respect to the substrate through the mechanical coupling that improves the performance of at least a portion of the MOS devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.