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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elmer who wrote (51137)	2/26/1999 7:35:00 PM
From: RDM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571821

I believe that both Elmer and Yousef are making some kind of estimate without direct data. They a relying on a hunch. The relevant data is the gate insulator thickness, and the electric field intensities in the insulator and in the semiconductor surface below the insulator. A detailed comparison is difficult to accurately judge without specific data. Yousef says that the oxide in Intel part is 32A at some point in assembly as performed by an optical measuring instrument. He does not mention whether the finished device may have an second insulating layer other than silicon dioxide on top of the 32A layer. <So, for example, on a 25 micron process its OK to put any voltage through the circuits?> There are relevant maximums, but just knowing the process is ".25 micron" is not sufficient to reliably estimate the maximums. For example, if Intel has 50 angstrom gate insulation thickness and AMD has 60 Angstrom gate thickness. AMD device may be slower is speed but higher in voltage. Since neither Yousef nor Elmer know the factual insulator thickness of the finished devices they cannot accurately judge the safety margins involved.