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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Shane Geary who wrote (54085)4/3/1999 3:59:00 PM
From: Process Boy  Read Replies (1) of 1579958
 
Shane - Cu vs. AlCu

Nice summary of the various aspects of the Cu or not to Cu debate.

I feel I need to clarify my position somewhat. My beef with AMD going to Cu at this point is what I believe to be an extremely high amount of risk for AMD. I brought up cross-contamination as one possible, worst case scenario that could be devastating. Any number of other process control issues with an immature process could also be just as devastating.

Intel is going to go to Cu at .13um. I'm on board with this, as the process will have at least two more years under it's belt before critical product and fab transitions. I'm not anti Cu. Dual damascene is physically / topographically an elegant solution, as Shane stated. Also, from what I understand, at .13 Cu provides a big improvement in RC delay with regard to the total circuit, at least from Intel's perspective. One could assume that Intel put a lot of emphasis on reducing gate delay for .18, while putting enough emphasis on RC delay improvement utilizing AlCu and SiOF dielectric (mature processes). At .18um, Intel strongly believes Cu is not worth the risk when AlCu is more than adequate, at this point in time.

Intel will probably ramp Cu in more than one fab, which provides margin. According to sources on this board, AMD's backup to Dresden is 100k-200k/mo. units at MOT. This is a pretty skimpy margin, IMHO. Again, I'm back to my AMD will have to execute flawlessly mantra.

Enough said.

PB
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