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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Yousef who wrote (35121)7/26/1998 10:28:00 PM
From: Maxwell  Read Replies (6) of 1572563
 
Yousef:

Do you know why I like to reply your posts so much? The reason is that you are supposed to know more process technology than me. You have a PhD and go to many conferences and symposiums. I on the other hand never go to those geek fests. Yet I understand and know more than you. Your posts have demonstrated a lack of understand in the technology. I realize that many people you have to talk to them many times before it sinks it. Let me repeat.

<< I see you are still HYPE'ing the Copper damascene process. >>

1) Copper process reduces backend process by 40%.
...This improves cycle time and hence reduces manufacturing time.
...Reduce manufacturing time reduces cost.
...Reduce cost improves profit margin.
...Companies are in the business of making money.
...Improve margin means more money in the pocket.
...Understand?

2) Copper conductivity is about 50% better than Al.
...Ohm Law:...Power=R*I*I
...Lower power means lower power dissipation
...Power=C*f*V^2 for a CPU. Lower power means you can go to higher frequency without burning the CPU and can be put in notebooks.
...Lower resistance means you can scale the die size down further since the metal trace resistance is now 50% less.

3) Low K is a breeze to integrate to copper to lower capacitance.
...Fluorinated HDP (K~2.5-3) is cakewalk with Cu damascene.
...AMD will have both Low R and Low K
...Low cost and superior process is a COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.
...Two is better than one.

4) Many companies opted for low K because it is EASIER than Cu.
...To go for Cu, companies have to resolve issues which you discussed.
...That means big R&D budget.
...AMD got that problem SQUARED away.

5) Cu has no electromigration problem.
...I will let you figure this one out.

Conclusion:

Intel will go for Cu sooner or later. They will SPEND BIG BUCKS on R&D to get that process MANUFACTURABLE. AMD will ENJOY YEARS of LOW COST MANUFACTURING CPUs while Intel engineers battle it out when to attack the COPPER MONSTER.

Maxwell
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