FinFETs + FD-SOI Proposition: May Save Power

Why not combine best-of-both worlds?
R. Colin Johnson, EETimes
7/2/2015 11:00 AM EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. — In the typical black-or-white / one-or-the-other manner in which many of us think, the choice that most semiconductor makers have made is FinFET (finned field effect transistors) or FD-SOI (fully depleted silicon-on-insulator). However, since the foundries like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSMC), GlobalFoundries Inc. (Santa Clara, California) and Samsung (Seoul, South Korea) have to offer both capabilities to their customers, more semiconductor manufacturers are considering offering the best-of-both-worlds.

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. (Austin, Texas), for instance, has just revealed to EE Times that it is using FinFETs for the 14-to-16 nanometer node as well as FD-SOI for 28-nanometer to achieve the same goal—faster speed and lower power consumption—but for different segments of their semiconductor portfolios. They are also toying with the idea of combining the two for next-generation semiconductor nodes.

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