Globalfoundries to skip straight to 28nm fabrication

Robert Hallock 2 Apr, 2010 at 5:05pm ET Article published in Tech

Globalfoundries, a semiconductor foundry jointly owned by AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Corporation, announced on Thursday that it will be skipping the 32nm node in favor of heading straight to 28nm high-k metal gate (HKMG) fabrication technology.

“All of our efforts around next-gen graphics and wireless are focused on 28nm with HKMG and we no longer have a 32nm bulk process. We removed this off our roadmap due to lack of customer demand as most are making the jump from 40/45nm right to 28nm,” said Jon Carvill, the head of public relations at Globalfoundries.

Technologically, the move puts Glofo ahead of TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor foundry, which scrapped plans for a 32nm process widely considered to be little more than a die shrink of their current 45/40nm process. TSMC’s abandoned 32nm plans also did not feature HKMG technology, which eases and simplifies the process of miniaturizing microelectronics.

Parts based on the new 28nm process will feature the smallest SRAM cells in the world at 0.120µm²; the most common use for SRAM cells is the cache in CPUs and GPUs, where they consume a significant portion of the die’s overall size. Having smaller SRAM cells will enable significantly smaller cache footprints for the same capacity.

Glofo’s 28nm HKMG approach is also beneficial for customers currently manufacturing at 40nm (GPUs) or 45nm (CPUs), as the design rules and workflows are quite similar between the nodes. The similarities will allow a high degree of intellectual property reuse, as well as a simplified approach to designing at 28nm.

Finally, the foundry revealed that the firm will be offering the 28nm node in two variants for different applications. First, Glofo says, the 28nm-HP (high performance) variant will be tailored for leading markets such as graphics, consoles, storage and networking. The 28nm-LP (super low power) variant, meanwhile, will be designed for embedded ICs, such as baseband and application processors, or any device that needs a long battery life.

Low cost prototyping for the 28nm process will begin this quarter, with mass production scheduled for the second half of 2010.

Comments

2 Apr 2010 ~ 5:45pm DrLiam I think this is a very smart move and can't wait to see some of the products that will feature this new technology.
2 Apr 2010 ~ 9:07pm mirage The next step following 32m is 22m (~0.7x32). 28nm is closer to 32m than the next node and they are already late to 32m.
2 Apr 2010 ~ 9:15pm Thrax Transitioning to 28nm is called a half-step node. It's easy to go to 28nm, as opposed to 22nm, because the equipment and processes are virtually identical.

22nm requires double patterning and immersion litho resolution that the industry has not yet come to in volume. That said, AMD/Glofo was the first to 22nm SRAM cells, and they're like to be the first for GPUs. Intel will likely get there first for CPUs.

Even if AMD is late to the 32nm party, they'll be closer to schedule on 22, when that time comes.
2 Apr 2010 ~ 10:17pm mirage I hope they can release 28nm products on time before Intel releases 22nm products in 2011. If that happens, AMD will lead in the process technology for the first time. We will see.
3 Apr 2010 ~ 8:32am Tim I'd like to see how these tiny chip dies are made, anyone got a link to a good video?
3 Apr 2010 ~ 9:28am mirage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit
http://www.appliedmaterials.com/HTMAC/animated.html
4 Apr 2010 ~ 12:45am shwaip a series of photolithography, deposition and etching steps.
4 Apr 2010 ~ 12:53am Thrax I approved your post, Mirage. It got caught in the spam queue, because it included links coming from the comment box on the front page of the website.
4 Apr 2010 ~ 2:53am GooD thankx mirage for the appliedmaterials link, that was actually very interesting

And thankx Thrax for approving his post