GlobalFoundries company expressed the availability of its plans to use lithography with superhard ultraviolet (EUV) as part of a 7-nm technology, mass production on which will start in 2018. Manufacturer only hinted that retains the possibility of using EUV-lithography "on the key layers" in the future. Meanwhile, the Korean company Samsung has clearly favored the application of EUV-lithography within the 7-nm technology in their enterprises.
Clarify the GlobalFoundries plans to allow interviews with its technical director Gary Paton , published with colleagues DigiTimes website. According to him, the development and introduction of 7-nm GlobalFoundries prefer to rely more on its own strength, rather than a partner in the face of Samsung resources. To be precise, the 7-nm process at GlobalFoundries going to develop active support of IBM. At least, the development team in this area 200 Professionals and 500 IBM employees. The work will be conducted in the state of New York.
From the use of EUV-lithography within the 7-nm process first generation GlobalFoundries was forced to withdraw , key customers require a 7-nm process by the first half of 2018, and of EUV-lithography must mature no earlier than 2019. GlobalFoundries simply did not fit into the schedule. However, this does not mean that the EUV will not be used thereafter.
By the way, we called those "key customers", which GlobalFoundries in the first half of 2018 will offer 7-nm serial products - is not only AMD's, but also IBM, in agreement with that company should produce processors of the same name brand. According to technical director GlobalFoundries, 7-nm process technology will bring the ability to create multi-core processors with high-speed interfaces, power consumption will reduce by 60%, to increase transistor switching speed by 30% and reduce the cost of the same 30%. Furthermore, within the 7-nm technology will be applied not only FinFET-structures, but also the spatial arrangement of 2.5D and 3D type microprocessors.
From the use of 10-nm process technology GlobalFoundries declined, considering it "straight-through" and not efficient enough.