Intel 10nm process to adopt cobalt for interconnects

Intel shared details about its future 10nm process at the EEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco. One of the interesting things shared by the chip giant is that it will adopt cobalt for its 10nm process, as a replacement for copper/low-k dielectrics.

Intel will use this metal in the bottom two layers of its 10nm interconnect, it scores five to ten times better in terms of electromigration and reduces via resistance by a factor of two. EE Times writes Intel is the first chip maker to introduce cobalt, others will stick with copper variants.

Intel will use cobalt in on the bottom two layers of its 10-nm interconnect to get a five- to ten-fold improvement in electromigration and a two-fold reduction in via resistance. It represents the first time that a chip maker has detailed plans to introduce cobalt — a brittle metal long considered a promising dielectric candidate — in a process, according to G. Dan Hutcheson, chairman and CEO of VLSI Research.