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Researchers at the world's biggest chipmaker said on Tuesday that their new SRAM (static random access memory) memory cell measures just one square micron, or one millionth of a meter.
Intel said the memory cells, which are the building blocks of memory chips, were built as part of fully functional SRAM devices manufactured using Intel's new 90-nanometer process technology.
Researchers said they used the cells to build fully functional 52-megabit chips (capable of storing 52 million individual bits of information). The chips contain 330 million transistors but measure just 109 square millimetres in size, smaller than either a US dime or the one euro cent coin. Intel said the chips were the highest-capacity SRAM chips ever reported.
SRAM chips are commonly used as test vehicles to develop next-generation logic manufacturing processes. The small memory cell size is significant because it will let Intel build denser, faster, high-performance microprocessors and do so cost effectively.
Intel said the working SRAM chips that it built demonstrate the success of its new 90-nanometer process. The tiny semiconductor devices were manufactured at Intel's 300mm development fabrication facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, using a combination of advanced 193 nanometer and 248 nanometer lithography tools.
Significantly, Intel, which employs more than 3,250 staff in Ireland in Leixlip and Shannon, has not yet said when it will continue construction of its new fabrication facility in Ireland, which is slated to use the same new production process. The Fab 24 plant in Kildare, if completed, will produce 300mm wafers using 90-nanometer capacity, several magnitudes smaller than the 0.13 micron capacity first planned for Leixlip.
But the new announcement underlines Intel's commitment to the new 90-nanometer process, which it said it plans to implement for production in 2003. The company will build many of its products on this process -- including processors, chipsets and communications products -- and will use the 90-nanometer technology exclusively on 300mm wafers. Intel has already spent some USD200 million developing the Fab 24 plant but construction has been suspended since March 2001.
"Intel's one square micron SRAM cell has established a new density benchmark for silicon technology," said Sunlin Chou, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's technology and manufacturing group. "This result gives us an early lead on 90-nanometer process technology for microprocessors and other products."
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