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Intel's impressive manufacturing process capabilities and fab resources are well known throughout the industry. In fact, most would argue that their manufacturing prowess has played a large part in the company's success. They've had many "firsts" over the years due to process advancements, the most recent of which was their successful cross-over from 90nm to 65nm mass production. Due to that success Intel has already shipped millions of processors manufactured at 65nm.
Today, Intel is announcing a breakthrough that will affect future products scheduled to be manufactured using the company's even more advanced 45nm process. A major issue that become more significant as manufacturing processes get smaller is current leakage. Leakage occurs through multiple parts of a semiconductor, but one of the most problematic situations occurs when unwanted current flows through the gate dielectric in a transistor. Ideally, the gate dielectric would act as a perfect insulator. But because it is made ever thinner as manufacturing processes advance and die geometries continue to shrink, current leaks through gate dielectric. In Intel's 65nm process, it is only 5 atomic layers thick. This leads to undesirable results and the transistor consumes more power than it should.
With their 45nm process, however, Intel has been able to develop and successfully implement a high-k (capacitance) and metal gate transistor that significantly reduce leakage current. According to Intel, the combination of manufacturing processors using their 45nm process, in conjunction with the high-k and metal gate transistor breakthrough will offer a number of key benefits.
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08-30-2008, 12:34 AM
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