Intel: 300-mm fabs will not arive for 0.18-um gemeration of devices
01/01/1998
Intel: 300-mm fabs will not arrive for 0.18-?m generation of devices
Microprocessor giant Intel is taking a less aggressive path toward adoption of 300-mm wafers than earlier planned, with the larger substrates not coming into play until after the 0.18-?m generation.
An Intel spokesman commented, "I don`t think (300-mm) will come on at 0.18-?m. The intercept is likely at 0.13. We have to look at managing 200-mm reuse and the 300-mm cost benefits, and how to manage the availability of the 300-mm tool set. We knew it would be tight at 0.18-?m." He added that 0.18-?m process development is ahead of schedule at the firm`s Portland, OR, Technology Development Group, and that the maturity of 300-mm tools remains a question mark, with only a handful of units in the field.
Last June, Intel indicated that it would begin transitioning to 300-mm wafer fabs with its 0.18-?m process generation, although the firm reiterated that equipment availability would be a key factor in the decision. The company is at work on a 300-mm developmental fab in Oregon, where a 0.18-?m process will be tested on the 300-mm diameter silicon; as recently as August, representatives for Intel had suggested that the 0.18-?m process developed there could be transferred to full-scale production fabs.
The Oregon developmental fab will maintain its fast-track construction schedule, said the Intel spokesman. Industry reports indicate that tools could be moved in as early as the beginning of 1999. The same facility would, presumably, be able to handle 0.13-?m process development as well. Intel maintains two process development groups, one in Santa Clara, CA, and one in Portland, OR. While maintaining extensive cross-communications, the two alternate generations, with Portland having handled 0.35-?m and 0.18-?m, and Santa Clara taking 0.25-?m and the nascent 0.13-?m program.
Another possibility is that 300-mm wafers could be adopted at 0.15-?m, an "in-between" geometry that has been added to the new SIA Roadmap. In the event that development of 0.13 processes is delayed, due to problems with lithography or other aspects of production, 0.15 may emerge as a less-demanding alternative for a generation of fabs. - P.N.D.