Intel's 10-nm Cobalt Resistance Layer will Replace Tungsten

In recent days, Intel can be said to be sitting on the needle. Since AMD released the Rzen series of processors, AMD has regained a lot of market share from Intel with its advanced multi-core architecture and excellent comprehensive performance. In the face of competitors' catch-ups and upgrades, the toothpaste factory no longer dared to squeeze toothpaste, and sacrificed many techniques at the bottom of the box.

At the IEEE International Electronic Equipment Conference (IEDM) in San Francisco last December, Intel demonstrated their next-generation 10nm wafer process, packaging 100 million transistors for the first time in a 1mm square wafer area. This is said to be the densest CMOS transistor density to date and has improved performance.

Copper atoms are easy to move and need to be controlled by a barrier layer of 1 to 2 nanometers. Intel used tungsten material to make resistance layer which contacted with transistor gate. Tungsten is very good, that is, it has elasticity and no electromigration problem. But the resistance of tungsten is very high, so Intel has to try to replace tungsten with cobalt in the process of improving technology.

Although cobalt is currently the best alternative material, the main wafer generation plants Samsung and TSMC still use tungsten materials. So Intel's biggest problem is where to implant new technology. If adopted prematurely, there will be a lot of costs, but as a monopoly, Intel needs money most, they are willing to pay a high price for it, and they have the ability to debug new materials.

Especially with the soaring price of cobalt, cost is indeed a thorny problem. But in order to match AMD, they will be used everywhere. Intel has previously said that 10 nanometres will improve performance by 25% or reduce power consumption by nearly half compared with 14 nanometres.

Intel did not say when the first 10-nm processors would be available, but it is expected that the first 10-nm series, called Cannon Lake, will appear in laptops in early 2018, followed by 10+process, which will be used in the Ice Lake processor series and 10++ process to further improve performance.

However, for those who eat melon, computer processors are now overpowered, and it is difficult to arouse the waves in their hearts. It's more about the mindset that matters. Since ZTE, Xiaobian has been expecting the domestic semiconductor industry to devote all its efforts to R&D and develop its own processors as soon as possible. It is no longer subject to human constraints, more than ever expected.

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