Globalfoundries' 14-nm is 'low-shrink' node

Peter Clarke, EETimes
10/8/2012 5:19 AM EDT

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia – The 14XM FinFET manufacturing process node being introduced by Globalfoundries Inc. for volume production in 2014 is aimed at reducing power consumption, but it will provide users with little or no size reduction over the previous 20-nm planar bulk CMOS node.

Such a transition between manufacturing process nodes – without a die footprint shrink as a clear cost saving as a driver – will be a first in the history of IC miniaturization. But Mojy Chian, senior vice president of design enablement, told the International Electronics Forum Thursday (Oct. 4) in a presentation "the normal ecomomics are dead," with the value proposition shifting strongly towards scaling the performance and operating voltage while physical scaling moves towards being carried more by 2.5-D and 3-D packaging.

Globalfoundries' next process has been labeled XM standing for extreme mobility indicating the company expects to provide market-leading performance and power consumption. The power consumption benefit is benchmarked at a 40 to 60 percent reduction in active power consumption, Chian told the conference here being organized here by consultancy Future Horizons Ltd.

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