*AV*--Sorry for the delay in responding but it was camping weekend.
First, thanks for the great link to the wonderful summary of the CYMI meeting in Rancho Bernardo - La Jolla - San Diego. Lots of praise to the author for the clear and detailed information.
Second, Kurlak sometimes amazes me. I think he number were slightly off base. But they were also irrelevant. (as was pointed out) IF, a shift from 0.35u to 0.25u were to take place with a re-design and not just s mere shrink, he might be close to the target. But normally, a re-designed shrink is not done by INTC but rather a re-design in a new feature size technology. There is a deifference in this previous statement. A shrink from one technology to another, like 0.35u to 0.25u is usually done to increase die output per wafer by both the nature of the shrink and the increase in yield due to the number of killer defects per wafer. An established device routinely goes through shrinks as a company's technology is advanced. This is a key competitive advancement. Certain minor process changes occur to accommodate the shrink but the actual device/design layout remains identical to the previous version.
In the case of INTC, as was clearly pointed out in the post you linked to, INTC is coming out with s new design on the new 0.25u technology. According to the numbers, it is close to a net zero improvement in die capacity. The area of the die is essentially the same. However, there will be a slight net increase in the yield due to the smaller feature sizes produced on the more state of the art equipment used to manufacture them. If I could take a guess, I would guess that a device of similar die area would yield approximately 10% good more die due to the new processes and equipment associated with the 0.25u technology implementation. This would come by way of RTP, CMP, CVD, DUV resolution, and Etching.
There may be more here than meets the eye but I am in agreement with you relative to Kurlak's comments. I think he is off base. The only exception is if INTC is about to announce a re-design of the existing chips to compete with the extremely small and competitive IDTI offering.
Andrew
|
