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Intel Orders EUV Equipment for the Road to 10GHz Microprocessors.

A

AGodspeed

Diamond Member
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-888781.html

The new tool uses Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) to print extremely small circuit patterns on chips, resulting in smaller features that let chipmakers pack many more transistors onto their semiconductors. An increase in transistors basically means a corresponding leap in performance. With EUV, chipmakers could see clock speeds of 10GHz or faster--much speedier than today's quickest, 2.4GHz chips.

"The use of EUV will allow us to keep on the Moore's Law path with a new technology generation every two years," Peter Silverman, director of lithography capital equipment development at Intel, said Monday.

Moore's Law, formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, has to do with the pace of chipmaking advances. It states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 to 24 months, as transistor size shrinks. But recently, the industry has worried that the law will soon collapse under actual physical burdens or economic ones. And if chips can't be made smaller or can't accommodate more transistors, the semiconductor business essentially grinds to a halt.

Perhaps some of the more knowledgeable individuals here can comment on what they know about EUV equipment?
 
Perhaps some of the more knowledgeable individuals here can comment on what they know about EUV equipment?

I?ll say, that?s a pretty vague description of the technology. Will it require a whole new CPU architecture, or could current processors be produced/integrated/redesigned with EUV?
 
Extreme Ultra Violet. AGodspeed, it's the type of equipment to go beyond 0.9 microns. Its lithography equipment for fabs. That explain everything? 😀🙂😛
Bdog-It's just a lithography processs, and will require no reivsion of CPU architecture, just maybe minor redesigning for electrical reasons.
 
Thanks fish tank, that clears things up. Do you know how far beyond 0.9m EUV will be able to take processors?
 


<< Extreme Ultra Violet. AGodspeed, it's the type of equipment to go beyond 0.9 microns. Its lithography equipment for fabs. That explain everything? 😀🙂😛
Bdog-It's just a lithography processs, and will require no reivsion of CPU architecture, just maybe minor redesigning for electrical reasons. >>



I think you mean .09 microns, seeing as how current Tualatins and Northwoods are on a .13 micron process 😉
IIRC the 386 was produced on a 1 micron process

-Ice
 
Ugh! My measurements are getting mixed up.

Okay, right now the Tualatin P3 is produced on a um0.13 process, right?
This should go beyond um0.09
Should go all the way down to um0.01
 
Heh heh.. okay, I asked our resident expert, Wingznut pez..


His reply (Sorry Wingznut pez if you don't want me quoting you, i'll take it down)

"Dear FishTankX, (and why are we being so formal? 😉 )

About how far EUV will take us... Don't really know. I mean, consider this:

We run 248nm lightwaves for .13µ. .25µ was originally supposed to be the limit of 248nm... MAYBE .18µ, but definitely not .13µ. But Intel made it work.

.09µ will use 193nm and .07µ will use 157nm (probably)

After that, Intel will probably switch to EUV, which is 13nm wavelength.... So, it'll be very interesting.

EUV will be very difficult. Basically, Photolithography is shining a light through a mask (reticle) onto the wafer and printing a pattern... Do you realize that EUV cannot travel through glass (or even air, for that matter)? The glass absorbs all the energy. Of course, then it melts/shatters/whatever.

Hope that helped. "

 
Translation:It will go beyond 0.01 micron, most probably. Seeing that 248NM light is suposed to be limited to .25 micron but they tweaked it so that it could work on :Q:Q0.13 micron:Q:Q then 13NM light.. well.. you tell me..
 
The EUV process is frought with enormous technical difficulties and poses some very interesting challenges because of its difference to conventional photo-lithography.

The major difficulty is the fact that EUV light of 13 nm wavelength is not easily transmitted. Conventional lithography uses lenses and a mask (essentially like a slide, in a slide projector) to project the image onto the wafer.

EUV doesn't pass through glass, or indeed anything similar, hence a transparent mask, and focussing lenses are out of the question. Instead, a mask made with a reflective pattern is used, and special curved mirrors are used to focus the image. Developing reflective masks is significantly different to developing conventional masks, and is currently very difficult and expensive.

The special reflectors too, are also very difficult - in fact it's only been within the last few years that it has been technically possible to make curved mirrors to the precision necessary for 0.09 micron processing.

The EUV light source is also radical new technology - the conventional lasers: krypton fluoride (248 nm), argon fluoride (193 nm) and upcoming fluorine (157 nm) lasers are all essentially similar. However, the EUV sources are different, and there are a variety of technologies vying for their place in the market - laser excited gas-plasma sources, and gas discharge techniques are the most likely contenders.

EUV is a very complex technique but which has a very great potential - it is,however, likely to take many years to develop it into a main stream technology - fortunately, conventional lithography still has some life left in the old dog yet.
 


<< Heh heh.. okay, I asked our resident expert, Wingznut pez..


His reply (Sorry Wingznut pez if you don't want me quoting you, i'll take it down)

"Dear FishTankX, (and why are we being so formal? 😉 )

About how far EUV will take us... Don't really know. I mean, consider this:

We run 248nm lightwaves for .13µ. .25µ was originally supposed to be the limit of 248nm... MAYBE .18µ, but definitely not .13µ. But Intel made it work.

.09µ will use 193nm and .07µ will use 157nm (probably)

After that, Intel will probably switch to EUV, which is 13nm wavelength.... So, it'll be very interesting.

EUV will be very difficult. Basically, Photolithography is shining a light through a mask (reticle) onto the wafer and printing a pattern... Do you realize that EUV cannot travel through glass (or even air, for that matter)? The glass absorbs all the energy. Of course, then it melts/shatters/whatever.

Hope that helped. " >>

Interesting stuff. Thanks Wingz, I know you're lurking somewhere out there. 🙂
 
There is a very good webcast speech about Intels technology strategies. Given by an intel engineer. At the end he discusses EUV as a possible technique for Intel. If anyone is interested I can dig up the webcast, it is a little over an hour long.. and is on microsoft's website.
Interestingly, MS also has a webcast of a speech given 3 years ago that lays out Hammer's architecture in detail.

Im feeling nice so I looked up the addresses:


Here is the EUV speech (i think) : LINK

Here is the Hammer: LINK
 
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