PROCESSORS
Intel Ships Microprocessors Using 300 mm Wafers on 0.13-micron Technology
SANTA CLARA, CA -- Intel Corporation has completed first production of microprocessors on the 0.13-micron process at its 300 millimeter (mm) wafer fab in Hillsboro, Ore. Intel is the first to produce and ship production level processors on 0.13-micron technology using 300 mm wafers. The microprocessors will be used for mobile, desktop and server applications. The products were manufactured in Fab D1C, making it Intel's fifth wafer fab running 0.13-micron process technology. "Intel is the first manufacturer to ramp up production of 0.13-micron technology on 300 mm wafers," said Sunlin Chou, Intel's senior vice president and general manager of the Technology and Manufacturing Group. "Microprocessors produced on 300 mm wafers cost 30 percent less than those made using the smaller 200 mm wafers, and by combining the larger wafers with our advanced 0.13-micron process, we are able to quadruple the output per wafer compared to that of the prior process generation." Enlarging the wafers to 300 mm (about 12 inches in diameter) dramatically increases production of computer chips at lower cost. The total silicon surface area of a 300 mm wafer is 225 percent (or more than twice) that of a 200 mm wafer, and the ratio of printed die (individual computer chips) is increased to 240 percent. The bigger wafers lower the production cost per chip while diminishing overall use of resources. The 300 mm wafer manufacturing will use 40 percent less energy and water per chip than a 200 mm wafer factory. Intel's new 0.13-micron process technology allows the company to manufacture chips with circuitry so small it would take almost 1,000 of these "wires" placed side-by-side to equal the width of a human hair. This advanced process technology enables high performance microprocessors that can contain hundreds of millions of transistors and run at multi-gigahertz clock speeds. Intel's 0.13-micron process technology features the world's fastest transistor used in volume production. Intel transistors are the foundation of the industry's fastest microprocessors.