GlobalFoundries confirms it will not offer a 10nm process

Posted on Wednesday, August 17 2016 @ 18:42 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
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SemiWiki had a chat with Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries, at SEMICON West. GlobalFoundries reiterated that it has its 14nm process up and running, the foundry reportedly has a ton of tape-outs in-line and claims production on multiple parts. Yield are described "world class".

The 14nm process will be used as a baseline for 7nm development and Patton confirmed there will not be a 10nm process from GlobalFoundries because the company believes this node will be too short-lived to make it worthwhile. Just like Intel, GlobalFoundries will use immersion lithography for its 7nm node but they are also positioned to introduce EUV when it's ready:
Gary confirmed GlobalFoundries will not be offering a 10nm process. They believe it will be short lived node and don't see the value proposition in it (authors note, at 20nm TSMC is really the only foundry that offered it and they quickly transitioned to 16nm, many believe the 10nm to 7nm transition will be similar).

For 7nm they are designing the process to be done with optical but they are also positioned to introduce EUV when it is ready. In Gary's opinion, the mistake that was made at 20nm was it added multi patterning but it didn't provide much scaling so the value proposition wasn't there. 7nm is designed to optimize cost and scaling. He wouldn't comment specifically on 7nm timing but he would say he thought they would be competitive with other foundries. They will have a base 7nm technology and they are also looking at further performance kickers to bring in later plus preparing for EUV.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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