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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC)
INTC 36.15-0.6%Dec 24 12:59 PM EST
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To: Charles Gryba who wrote (142041)8/20/2001 5:33:07 PM
From: fingolfen  Read Replies (2) of 186894
 
I don't want to argue hypothetical situations. ( Like who's getting steppers first when there's a shortage ). Also, if Intel can do .13 without 193nm Steppers why can't AMD do the same? ( Is this a stupid question ? )

I'm not semi, but I can answer this one.

The smallest features being printed on any semiconductor at this point are polysilicon gates (although contact is starting to get nasty as well largely because of the tight pitch, or the number of contact holes in a given area). The width for the Intel process is 70-80nm according to published sources. This means that the final gate width is 25%-33% of the "width" of the wavelength of the light initially used to pattern it (248nm). There are a variety of ways to do this (phase shift masks are but one option).

AMD can use all of the same tricks, the only problem is that 70nm or thereabouts is where some of the tricks stop working. AMD is already running very narrow gate widths at this point, and to reduce them further (say to the 50-60nm regime) is going to require either 193nm, or pushing the existing tricks to their very breaking point (read yield fallout levels). The steppers for 193nm are not generally available, which leaves pushing the envelope on existing 248nm lithography to or past the breaking point.
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