What is a reason behind gradated evolution of IC fabrication process ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: jimon
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 09:29:16 pm
content: Sorry for a strange question. I caught myself thinking that I don't understand why IC process size is decreasing in small steps.In 1999 industry introduced 180 nm, in 2012 they introduced 22 nm. What exactly was stopping them in 1999 from "trying" to "jump" as much as they could back then ? Also same goes to whole IC industry - it keeps shrinking in steps from 1971.Doesn't look like 22 nm manufacturing is totally different from 180 nm : it's still variation of immersion lithography, it's still CMOS. The only major difference is usage of multi-gate transistors (FinFET / Tri-gate) and high-k dielectric material. But it's hard to believe that it was impossible to R&D back in 90-x. And it's also hard to believe that it's just marketing - there should be a proper reason behind this !

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 09:36:43 pm
content: untold Billion$ of equipment costs, trial and error, testing and verification, and design challenges at each process node.in 1999, nobody knew how to project Deep UV masks onto wafers. that was only discovered with experience using intermediate wavelengths.they didn't know what design rules would need to be used, either. if you don't know how to design a chip for a process, it's worthless.

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 21, 2015, 09:53:04 pm
content: It costs about 2-5 billion dollars to build relatively modern manufacturing lines from nothing. See the References section at the bottom of this page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plantsFrom what I read, it was possible to "upgrade" 90nm lines to 65nm and then to 45nm in some cases and cost just a few hundred million dollars, but the jump to 32nm and 28nm was much more difficult and it made more sense to build a separate production line and continue to produce stuff on the old line.Again from what I read, and if I remember what I read correctly, 20nm or so is the lowest possible without going into Extreme Ultra Violet (14nm the Intel is now finalizing) which is different than what's currently used so that's again something to make from scratch, can't upgrade old plants.

author: JoeN
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 22, 2015, 01:11:45 am
content: I understand the OP's question to be something like: For many kinds of tools, there has been an evolution because one generation of tools has been used to make the next. We use tools to make products, but even more importantly, to make better tools, straight up to bazillion axis bazillion inch per second CNC machines that now exist only because of parts made on the last generation's CNC tools. If we lost all our tools we wouldn't be able to go directly back to where we are now, we'd go back to the first generation of whatever and start working again. But IC technology isn't like this - the prior generation is not necessary to make the prior one. Or is it? Because if it is, that explains ICs just like many other kinds of bleeding edge technology tools.