Over 50 Percent More Chips Per Wafer
The superstar CPU makers have finished their move to 0.13-micron-process manufacturing, but Infineon Technologies AG has raised — or, we should say, narrowed the ante, using 0.11-micron-process technology for volume manufacturing of DRAM memory chips. The Munich-based company has already delivered samples of the world’s smallest 256Mbit DDR chips to Intel and strategic partners.
According to Infineon, the combination of the new 0.11-micron process and its proprietary trench cell technology — using the advanced 193-nanometer lithography expected to play a central role in 90-nanometer CPU manufacturing — yields a production cost advantage of around 30 percent, producing more than half again as many chips per 200mm wafer as its previous 0.14-micron DRAM process.
Having perfected the new process at its 200mm facility in Dresden, Infineon is now ramping up 0.11-micron production at both its 200mm and newer 300mm process lines, including its fab in Richmond, Va. The company says its environmentally friendly lead- and halogen-free manufacturing is ideal for production of high-speed memories such as DDR-2 with densities up to 1Gbit per chip.