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New process makes Intel chips smaller
Wednesday, March 13 2002
by Sheila McDonald


Intel said its has built the world's smallest, densest memory cell which can be
used to build chips of just 109 sq. mm, smaller than a euro cent coin.



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."