Intel has unveiled its roadmap for its packaging and process technology advancements. In it they show their fundamental innovations that will drive their products from 2025 onwards. Along with the announced RibbonFET architecture and PowerVia power delivery method, they note that they plan to adopt extreme ultraviolet lithography for their next generation of manufacturing, called High Numerical Aperture EUV, which would be the first in the industry.
They have introduced a new naming structure for their process nodes, creating a clear and consistent framework to offer customers a more accurate view across the industry. With the launch of Intel Foundry Services, this becomes much more important as it will enable you to meet your product roadmap.
Future Intel Product Series
To make its future products and services much more understandable, Intel has clarified the different nomenclatures that its products will have. Among them are COUs, lithographs, new architectures ...
The future called Intel 7 will offer an increase in performance per watt of between 10 percent and 15 percent, approximately. These data are if we compare them with Intel 10nm SuperFin CPUs, based on the optimizations of the FinFET transistors. Intel 7 can be found in products such as CPUs in the series Alder lake for customers in 2021 and Sapphire Rapids for products intended for use in data centers, which is expected to be in production in the first quarter of 2022.
For its part, Intel 4 fully embraces EUV lithography to reproduce incredibly small features with ultra-short wavelength light. Approximately 20 percent increase in performance per watt will be achieved, as well as area improvements. The Intel 4 series products will be ready for production in the second half of 2022, and will be in products that will ship from the year 2023, including the Meteor Lake line of CPUs for home customers, and Granite Rapids for the centers. of data.
Intel 3 will take advantage of new FinFET optimizations and a higher EUV to achieve an increase in performance per watt of approximately 18 percent over Intel 4, along with additional area improvements. Intel 3 will be ready to go into production in products in the second half of 2023.
Finally, Intel 20A will usher in the Angstrom era with revolutionary RibbonFET and PowerVia technologies. RibbonFET is Intel's implementation of a gate-all-around transistor and will be the company's first new transistor architecture since pioneering FinFETs in 2011. This offers faster transistor switching speeds and achieves the same current. boost than multiple fins in a smaller footprint. For its part, PowerVia will be Intel's first implementation in the rear-end power delivery sector, optimizing the transmission signal to eliminate the need to route power to the front of the wafer. Intel's roadmap expects Intel 20A to go live in 2024. They hope to partner with Qualcomm through the use of Intel 20A process technology.
Beyond 2025 for Intel
For their roadmap beyond 2025 they prepare Intel 18A, which is already in development and is expected to be ready for the beginning of that year and with improvements in RibbonFET. With this they will offer another great leap in the performance of the transistors. Intel is also working to define, build, and implement next-generation High NA EUVs, achieving the industry's first production tool. They are collaborating with ASML to ensure that this industry innovation can move forward and succeed, beyond the current generation of EUVs.
With Intel's new IDM 2.0 strategy, they place much more emphasis on packaging to reap the benefits of Moore's Law. AWS will be the first customer of yours to use IFS packaging solutions, while providing the company's Advanced Packaging Roadmap Envelopes.
EMIB continues to lead the industry as the first 2.5D integrated bridge solution. They do so thanks to products that have been on the market since 2017. Sapphire Rapids will be Xeon's first data center product to ship in high volume with EMIB. It will also be the first device in the industry to be the size of a dual grid, and will offer nearly the same performance as a monolithic design. In addition to Sapphire Rapids, the next generation EMIB will go from a 55 micron bump pitch to 45 microns.
Foveros will leverage wafer-level packaging capabilities to offer a unique 3D stacking solution. The Meteor Lake CPU series will implement the second generation of Foveros in a product for home customers and will feature a 36 micron bump pitch, tiles spanning multiple technology nodes, and a thermal design power range of 5 to 125 W.
Its next generation Foveros Omni will provide greater flexibility for performance 3D stacking technology for die-to-die interconnection and modular designs. It will allow the unbundling of the die, mixing multiple top dies with multiple base dies through mixed build nodes. Foveros Omni is expected to be ready for mass manufacturing by 2023.
In the case of Foveros Direct, it switches to direct copper-to-copper bonding for low resistance interconnects to blur the end of the wafer and the beginning of the pack. This enables bump pitches down to 10 microns, providing an order of magnitude increase in interconnect density for 2023D stacking. All this will open up new concepts for the functional partition of the DIE that were previously unattainable. Foveros Direct will be complementary to Foveros Omni and is also expected to be ready for distribution in products of the year XNUMX.
A future full of innovations is coming for Intel
The advancements announced today by Intel to be implemented for the year 2025 have been developed primarily at Intel facilities in the states of Oregon and Arizona. This roadmap consolidates Intel's role as a leading player conducting both research and development and manufacturing of all of its technology products in the United States. Its innovations are based on close collaboration with an ecosystem of partners in both the United States and Europe. Thanks to these types of partnerships that are key to bringing the laboratory's foundational innovations to large-scale manufacturing, Intel is committed to partnering with the governments of different territories to strengthen supply chains and boost economic and national security.
Intel concluded its conference by confirming more details about its Intel InnovatiON event, which will be held in the city of San Francisco and virtually on October 27 and 28, 2021. It is expected that many new products will be announced and deepened on products of domestic and business consumption that will soon reach the market.
