As chips become smaller and more powerful, one tiny layer – just a few atoms thick – now determines whether a product meets its performance, power, and reliability targets.
That layer is the silicon oxide interface between the transistor and the rest of the device. And today, most of the industry still relies on chemically grown oxide, which comes with inherent problems:
- it traps unwanted charge,
- leaks more current than expected,
- and weakens long‑term reliability.
The SiO2 quality issues plays bigger role as companies move to new transistor designs like Gate‑All‑Around nanosheets and to stacked 3D chip architectures where traditional high‑temperature fixes are no longer possible.
Companies have tried workarounds – special anneals, nitrogen treatments, and plasma steps – but these often introduce new reliability risks or demand temperatures that advanced manufacturing flows cannot tolerate.
Real Business Impacts
Poor interface quality affects the three things that most influence revenue:
1. Product performance
Defects in chemical oxides reduce drive current and limit how aggressively a company can tune for speed.
Higher electric fields in new transistor architectures amplify these weaknesses.
2. Power and energy efficiency
Chemical oxides leak more current than their thickness suggests. This forces higher guard bands and increases power consumption, directly impacting data‑centre operating cost and battery life.
3. Yield and long‑term reliability
Unwanted charge in the oxide shifts transistor behaviour over time, causing failures and yield loss. In advanced nodes, even a small shift in yield becomes expensive.
What the latest research shows
Global research leaders have demonstrated that if you improve SiO2 and interface quality, by reducing hydrogen‑related defects and avoid trapped charge from the start, you can produce a cleaner, stable oxide layer at low temperature – outperforming even the best traditional high‑temperature oxides.
This proves the point: the problem is in the quality of oxide and in the interface.
SisuSemi changes the game
SisuSemi uses a fundamentally different approach.
Ultra‑high vacuum + controlled, low‑temperature oxidation
This method removes atomic‑level contaminants before oxide growth and produces an exceptionally clean and orderly interface.
The result: far fewer defects, lower leakage, and dramatically improved reliability – all at temperatures compatible with next‑generation chip designs.
Why customers care
- Lower power at the same performance
- Higher performance at the same power
- Reduced variation and higher yield
- Compatibility with stacked 3D and future transistor architectures
Across early test structures, SisuSemi’s process has delivered large reductions in leakage and significant reductions in interface defects, directly improving both performance and reliability.
What this means for your roadmap
If your company is moving toward:
- New transistor designs (e.g., Gate‑All‑Around)
- Stacked 3D logic
- Continued voltage scaling
- More aggressive power targets
…then oxide quality becomes a business‑critical differentiator, not just a technical detail.
The companies that fix this interface now will enjoy higher margins, better yield, lower power, and smoother node transitions.
Next step
We recommend a fast evaluation on your process flow, comparing your current oxide with SisuSemi’s low‑temperature interface treatment. The test is straightforward, low‑risk, and produces measurable results in few weeks.
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