The Role of Doping Technology in the CMOS Digital Revolution

The last two decades have been marked by a digital revolution that has changed the use and exchange of information as never before. The late 20th century 250 nm node was a turning point in which the last remaining thermal diffusion steps for semiconductor doping were replaced by ion implantation. Inexpensive MP3 players and mobile phones appeared in the hands of common people around the globe at every stratum of society. This was the beginning of a vision in which affordability, lower power consumption and increasing circuit complexity would put elaborate Systems-on-a-Chip in pocket-sized items of everyday use. Every new node on the Semiconductor Roadmap resulted in more capable gadgets and unbounded applications. We trace the indispensable role of doping technology in achieving demanding scaling requirements node upon node and making possible the rapid advances in CMOS electronics. The energy range of ion implantation in industrial use has been expanded many-fold, several new species have been added, and fundamentally new annealing techniques continue to be brought into manufacturing. Examples are provided of the Materials Science and physical understanding that has been gained in order to provide a basis for the new technologies and future development.