2023-08-24 20:55:00
Intel is taking giant steps in the development of its lithographic processes, after years and years stuck at 14 nm. The next process to hit the market is the 4nm one, egocentrically called Intel 4 (actually the node is simply called “4”), which although it would be a 7nm node according to the old nomenclature, is now a 4nm one. . Talking about lithographic nodes in terms of nanometers has long since ceased to make sense, but the change came so as not to distance itself from its competition. Especially TSMC, whose 3nm node has said that it has little to envy with its Intel 4.
William Grimm, Vice President and Director of Logic Technology and Engineering Product Development, has said so because his 4nm node is the first to make use of extreme ultraviolet light (EVU) machinery. “With the SVU we can control the complexity of the process.” By this he means the complexity introduced by having to create complex layers using multi-patterning techniques, which is creating each layer using deep UV light and, for example, four photoliths instead of one, with each photolithus comprising a part of the design of the layer. With UVE light the allowed complexity of the photolith is increased, so Intel can choose which less sensitive layers to switch to using UVE and which to keep using multi-patterning.
The first processors that will integrate a chip made with the 4 nm process are Meteor Lake, or rather a chiplet of those that will contain, a smaller chip that contains only part of the structure of a normal CPU. In this case it will be that of the CPU cores, so as not to put its proprietary and ultra-secret architecture in the hands of third parties.
Grimm has indicated that it is difficult to compare its lithographic process 4 with that of other companies, but that on this occasion the company has focused on energy efficiency and not so much on power, so “it is suitable for cases of use such as those portable”. He added that “we have secured enough production with UVE to meet market demand, and we have well-established plans for the next ones, such as the Intel 3 process.”
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