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Industry to start move to 450mm wafers in 2012
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 6th May 2008
Intel, Samsung Electonics and TSMC have collectively agreed to push forwards with plans to move to 450mm wafer production, starting in 2012.
The trio say that they’ll cooperate with the rest of the semiconductor industry to ensure that all of the required components, infrastructure and capability are developed in readiness for a 450mm pilot line in 2012.
The first 300mm wafer production began in 2001, ten years after the first 200mm wafers started to come off the production line. The transition to 450mm wafers will take a little longer than past-history dictates, but the trio say that because of the complexity involved in such a move, the target date will be constantly evaluated, as it will be “critical to ensure industry-wide readiness.”
"Increasing cost due to the complexity of advanced technology is a concern for the future," said Mark Liu, TSMC's senior vice president of Advanced Technology Business. "Intel, Samsung, and TSMC believe the transition to 450mm wafers is a potential solution to maintain a reasonable cost structure for the industry."
A 450mm wafer has over twice the surface area of a 300mm wafer and Intel says that the increased efficiency associated with a move to a larger wafer size will also help to reduce the overall resource usage (energy, water, etc) in every chip. Moving to larger wafers will no doubt to lower the cost of production per chip, and this should help to keep costs reasonable and also potentially open the market to a broader audience.
It’s quite possible that we won’t see products manufactured on 450mm wafers for a few years after the transition starts, but we’re excited to see how what doors this move opens for the semiconductor industry. Discuss in the forums.
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Comments (9)
correct me if i'm wrong...
Still, cheaper chips :D They'll hopefully be out buy the time I'm set for my next big upgrade
Its because they're grown not printed. Wiki link Basically its like making a candle where you start with some form of wick to which the silicon sticks to and then you pull it out as the crystals form the layers. And finally after you have you giant silicon candle you slice it and make the chip on it.
EDIT: doh beaten to it
This is exactly right. I have seen them grown before and that is pretty much what is going on. The neck touches the melted silicon and starts to spin very slowly and rise at the same time. This could take a whole day to grow one rod depending on the materials and size used. I used to grow low temp oxide on Intel wafers before. My wife works on the 300mm SOI wafers right now. Not all the wafers are round either i have seen many different shapes and sizes. One was very square with all kinds of notches sticking out. That one was for NASA. I think they were for the stardust project.
While it is possible to cast square blocks of silicon, you end up with polysilicon, while semicon manufacturers need monosilicon.
Poly beeing many crystals, mono beeing one big crystal.
Poly square blocks are used for solar panels for instance.
Monosilicon is usually made round, by the pulling process described above (only still slower)
Having a round wafer has many disadvantages, for instance losses at the corners...layout a grid on a cirkle and count the "incomplete" squares on the sides.
Then notice that when you increase the circle, the amount of incomplete squares compared to the amount of complete squares goes down. So bigger wafers means less incomplete squares (one square usually being a chip)
The good thing about round wafers however is that it is easier to deposit and remove even layers on them. (nitride, oxide, copper...you wouldn't believe how many layers a chip is actually made of...most beeing removed again during production)
Xir