[The Exiled]

2018 Semiconductor Year in Review: Process Delays at Intel

In 2007 Intel introduced their 45nm process, the world’s first production process with high-K metal gates (HKMG), In 2009 Intel introduced 32nm and then in 2011 their 22nm process, the world’s first production FinFET process. 14nm was originally expected in 2013 but didn’t ramp until 2014 due to yield issues. After the 14nm delay expectations for intel reset to a 3-year cadence and 10nm was expected in 2017. Intel did ship a few 10nm parts at the end of 2017, but production is now expected to be late 2019 once again due to yield issues. Intel’s 10nm has slightly denser logic than the first-generation foundry 7nm processes and Intel is paying the price for the aggressive shrink they attempted. Both Samsung and TSMC went from 16nm/14nm to 10nm and then 7nm while Intel went from 14nm to their “10nm” process in a single step, a 2.7x density increase. There has been a lot of speculation that in order to fix the 10nm yield issues Intel will relax the density specifications, I continue to believe the process that is due to ramp up next year will have the same density previously announced (this is also what Intel is saying).

Intel is now reportedly exiting the custom foundry business. Frankly I never took Intel seriously in foundry, they have always introduced their microprocessor processes a year or more before they offered a foundry version at the same node, if they were serious about foundry the foundry process would have come out at the same time. I do not however see Intel abandoning their own internal manufacturing as some have speculated. Intel has started equipping their moth-balled Fab 42 as the lead 7nm production fab and they recently announced fab expansions in Oregon, Israel and Ireland.

Intel is currently working on 7nm due in 2020. Intel 7nm is targeted as a 2.4x shrink from their 10nm process. Based on the announcements and rumors surrounding Samsung’s 5nm process due in 2019, 4nm process in 2020 and 3nm process in 2021 and TSMC’s 5nm process due in 2019 and 3nm process forecast for around 2021, these processes will be relatively modest shrinks and we expect that if Intel achieves the target shrink their 7nm process will be as dense or denser than the foundry 3nm processes. The question is can they hit their 2020 target. Intel has commented on a conference call that they believe by introducing EUV at 7nm they think the 2.4x shrink is achievable. My concern is a 2.4x shrink will be really pushing a lot of device limits and I would not be surprised to see 7nm delayed. Even if Intel is delayed to 2021 or even 2022 they will once again have competitive density with the foundries.

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  Autor The Exiled

  Intel Xeon W-3175X zeigt sich zu Preisen ab 4.100 Euro - duplo skuplji od Threadripper 2990WX modela, a opet duplo jeftiniji od Xeon Platinum 8176.

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Izvor: SemiWiki, Semiconductor Engineering i PC Builder's Club