TSMC offers FinFET technology to academia
TSMC has launched its “TSMC University FinFET Program”, aimed at developing future IC design talent for the industry and empowering academic innovation around the world.
The program will provide broad educational access for university students, faculty, and academic researchers to the process design kit (PDK) of the industry’s most successful fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) technology at 16nm, bringing the IC design learning experience to the advanced FinFET level. The program will also provide access for leading IC researchers in universities to both 16nm (N16) and 7nm (N7) silicon through multi-project wafer (MPW) services to accelerate impactful research innovations towards real-world applications.
Working with service partners in Asia, Europe and North America, TSMC is offering universities the following resources – for teaching purposes, and for research projects leading to silicon test chips:
Design collateral for teaching is based on TSMC’s N16 process, and includes tutorial design cases, training materials and instructional videos, bringing students from the conventional planar transistor structure into the FinFET era.
For impactful research projects, TSMC is providing both N16 and N7 process design collateral for test chips to be manufactured via MPW. These include research designs in logic, analog, and radio frequency (RF).
“At TSMC, we are always looking towards the future – not only the future research that will become tomorrow’s technology breakthroughs, but the future talent who will become tomorrow’s innovators,” said Dr. Kevin Zhang, senior vice president of business development at TSMC. “By offering our 16nm and 7nm technology through the TSMC University FinFET Program, we open a whole new arena for researchers and students to explore their ideas, and fuel their curiosity and passion for the exciting and fast-growing field of semiconductors.”
