The media has gone wild over a false report that Intel and TSMC are slowing down 3nm. It is all about sensationalism and getting clicks no matter what damage is done to the hardworking semiconductor people, companies and industry as a whole. And like lemmings jumping off a cliff, other less reputable media outlets perpetuated this… Read More
How TSMC Contributed to the Death of 450mm and Upset Intel in the Process
Pinpointing exactly when 450mm died is tricky. Intel’s pullback in 2014 has been cited as a pivotal moment because it was the main backer of the proposed transition, as it had been for the shift to 150mm (6-inch) wafers in the early 1980s.
However, the participation of global foundry leader TSMC was also seen as crucial if 450mm wafers… Read More
Intel Lands Top TSMC Customer
Most people will be surprised by this but after working in Taiwan for many years I quite expected it. Intel Announced that MediaTek will use Intel Foundry Services for FinFET based smart edge device chips. MediaTek will start with Intel 16nm technology which originated from the legendary 22nm, the first commercial FinFET process.… Read More
3D Device Technology Development
The VLSI Symposium on Technology and Circuits provides a deep dive on recent technical advances, as well as a view into the research efforts that will be transitioning to production in the near future. In a short course presentation at the Symposium, Marko Radosavljevic, from the Components Research group at Intel, provided … Read More
Intel Foundry Services Puts PDKs in the Cloud
Intel announced today that they are partnering with cloud and EDA companies to better enable their foundry business. This is a natural extension of the Accelerator ecosystem program announced earlier. More and more chip designs are being done in the cloud and from my experience cloud based designs are better. Some companies use… Read More
Intel 4 Deep Dive
As I previously wrote about here, Intel is presenting their Intel 4 process at the VLSI Technology conference. Last Wednesday Bernhard Sell (Ben) from Intel gave the press a briefing on the process and provided us with early access to the paper (embargoed until Sunday 6/12).
“Intel 4 CMOS Technology Featuring Advanced FinFET Transistors… Read More
An Update on In-Line Wafer Inspection Technology
From initial process technology development (TD) to high volume manufacturing (HVM) status for a new node, one of the key support functions to improve and maintain yield is the in-line wafer inspection technology. Actually, there are multiple inspection technologies commonly employed, with tradeoffs in pixel resolution,… Read More
0.55 High-NA Lithography Update
At the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning Conference, Mark Phillips from Intel gave an insightful update on the status of the introduction of the 0.55 high numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet lithography technology. Mark went so far as to assert that the development progress toward high-NA EUV would support … Read More
Intel and the EUV Shortage
In my “The EUV Divide and Intel Foundry Services” article available here, I discussed the looming EUV shortage. Two days ago, Intel announced their first EUV tool installed at their new Fab 34 in Ireland is a tool they moved from Oregon. This is another indication of the scarcity of EUV tools.
I have been tracking EUV system production… Read More
Can Intel Catch TSMC in 2025?
At the ISS conference held from April 4th through 6th I presented on who I thought would have the leading logic technology in 2025. The following is a write up of that presentation.
ISS was a virtual conference in 2021 and I presented on who currently had logic leadership and declared TSMC the clear leader. Following that conference,… Read More