GlobalFoundries CTO talks about importance of 7nm node, AMD to adopt it in 1H 2018

In an interview with DigiTimes, GlobalFoundries CTO Gary Patton discussed the company's roadmap and stressed the importance of the upcoming 7nm node. You can read the full interview over here. While GlobalFoundries licensed Samsung's 14nm process, Patton says his company has picked a different approach for 7nm technology. As reported in the previous months, GlobalFoundries decided to skip its 10nm process because it didn't see much use for it, and the company says it's not going to introduce EUV on the 7nm node because EUV maturity isn't expected until 2019. GlobalFoundries expects it will be able to offer its 7nm node for volume production in the first half of 2018, with initial clients including IBM and AMD.

Q: Why is there no plan to introduce extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) technology at the 7nm process?

A: The EUV technology is expected to become mature in 2019, but our major clients need the 7nm products to be in mass production in early 2018.Therefore we still continue to use the current optical technology, instead of using the EUV technology.

Samsung's decision to introduce in advance the EUV technology into its 7nm process means that Globalfoundries and Samsung are approaching different technologies for the development of the 7nm node. But we do not know the situations at the Korea company.