I built my first crystal radio at about the age of ten (had help with the soldering iron) and have been dabbling in the analog electronics field ever since. The "James Brown of Analog": I do like James Brown and have I been working in the electronics industry for many years. I’m also a big fan of Reggae and Ska and spent my youth listening to John Peel on Radio 1. Ken Boothe is the greatest singer. Running is a passion. Squaw Valley is the best place to ski. Ever! A view on semiconductor fab. trends to 2012
Posted by Navraj Nandra on October 9th, 2008
Well, it was a long summer break, since my last entry! Over the past few months, I spent quite a bit of time with customers around the globe learning about their fabrication technology needs. Here are the trends I’m seeing…
32 nm
- Reduction of product cost and power compared to 45 nm
- Foundry offerings include HKMG
- Migration started, leading IDM’s ramping up initial volumes in Q4/2009
- Ramp-up of 32 nm requires cost per function to be reduced (exception can be processors for high-end servers where price premiums can be maintained)
- Shrink path to 28 nm
- Mainstream market adoption projected in ~2012
45/40 nm
- 1st wave customers designing in 45/40nm
- Major driver: wireless handset/consumer multimedia
- Volumes low due to leakage (parametric yields, soft errors in embedded memory)
Mainstream market adoption in 2010~2011
65 nm
Very fast ramp-up of designs, faster than expected
Use of 65nm for RF as well as digital designs
Very long life cycle projected with Asia moving to 65 nm aggressively and 55 nm being offered in the digital consumer area
SOI
Still remains niche: GPU, CPU, NPU
Would be interesting to read your viewpoints.
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