Posted on Wednesday, October 07 2020 @ 16:25 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
TechPowerUp
writes Intel's Fab 42 has finally entered operational status. Originally intended to manufacture 450mm wafers with 14nm chips, which never came to be, this fab is now equipped with tools to manufacture 300mm wafers with 10nm chips. This makes it Intel's third facility capable of churning out 10nm chips (which are still pretty rare).
As such, Fab 42 has been geared up for 10 nm fabrication, looking to increase output capacity to sate demand of Intel's current edge process; this places Fab 42 as Intel's third operational fab with 10 nm output (alongside its Israel and Oregon plants). Whether Intel's Fab 42 has an easy modernization path towards 7 nm production or not is uncertain - 7 nm, as Intel announces it, features both DUV (Deep UltraViolet) and EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) fabrication technologies, with EUV lacking from the current 10 nm technology.
