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Intel Corporation unveiled several highly anticipated semiconductor production breakthroughs, which the company has integrated into its new 90-nanometer (nm) chip-making process. This process, which Intel is only now fully disclosing after months of speculation, will be used in the firm's chip-manufacturing process next year using 300 mm wafers.
The 90nm process, according to Intel, combines higher-performance, lower-power transistors, strained silicon, high-speed copper interconnects and a new low-k dielectric material. In fact the company says that this is the first time all of these technologies will be integrated into a single manufacturing process. The 90nm process is the next generation after the 0.13 micron process, which Intel is using today to make the bulk of its microprocessors.
"While some are slowly transitioning production to 130nm (0.13 micron) process on 200 mm wafers, we are moving ahead with the most advanced 90nm technology exclusively on 300 mm wafers," said Dr. Sunlin Chou, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group. "This combination will allow Intel to make better products and reduce manufacturing costs."
One of the key features in the process are Intel's advanced transistors, which measure only 50 nm, or 1/2,000th of the width of a human hair, in length (gate length). Intel claims that these transistors will be the smallest, highest performing CMOS transistors in production. By comparison, the most advanced transistors in production currently, found in Intel Pentium 4 processors, measure in at 60nm.
"These technologies are very much destined for Ireland and Fab-24," said a spokesperson for Intel Ireland. When Fab-24 begins operating in early 2004, it is the 90nm process that will be used there. Fab-24, based in Lexlip, Co. Kildare, will be Intel's newest chip-making facility when it opens.
Initially the process will be used only in Intel's facility in Oregon and the company says 90nm production will begin there in early 2003. Currently there are 125 Irish engineers at that facility learning about, and helping to further develop, this process. According to the Intel Ireland spokesperson these engineers will begin retuning to Ireland in late 2003 as the firm gears up for the opening of Fab-24.
To some degree, Intel is taking a risk with its USD12.5 billion spending binge on manufacturing technology during the past two years. When the 90nm chips begin rolling off the production line, the company will undoubtedly have a serious advantage over competitors with regard to the capability of its chips.
But if the tech sector does not rebound in the way that Intel and Chief Executive Officer Craig Barrett expect, the business could have difficulty selling the highly advanced chips. Moreover, there remains a possibility that computers employing them will only use a fraction of the chips' ability if there are few applications that require such vast quantities of processing power.
It is worth noting however that Intel's relative success in the face of the current tech downturn has allowed it to remain more profitable over the last few quarters. This success, by most accounts, is based on its cutting edge technologies.
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