Intel has a new ‘Roadmap’. And reveals why his future is in the hands of lithographs 18 and 14th

Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: The photolithography 18a. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025. And he also assured that he will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated from the 20A node.

Right now this is the asset that Intel has to compete with TSMC and Samsung in the market for the production of integrated circuits in a year in which 2 Nm photolithographies They will take off yes or yes. Lithography 18a is erected above all about two essential innovations: Ribbonfet transistors Gate-alall-around (GAA) and energy delivery technology Powervia. We already knew this, but now thanks to Roadmap Updated that has just published Intel, we know much more.

Lithographs 18A-PT and 14A will seal the future of Intel until 2028

Litography 14a will be the first in which Intel will use UVE High Opening Teams asml. In it Roadmap That we publish a little below in this article we can see that this integration technology will arrive in 2027, and shortly after, although that same year, the 14A-E node will also be ready, which will be nothing other than a review of the original integration technology. An important note: when Intel tells us about his 18th or 14th nodes what he is telling us is that These integration technologies are comparablealways according to Intel itself, to the lithographs of 1.8 Nm and 1.4 Nm of TSMC or Samsung, which are its main competitors.

The most relevant novelties that we can see in the new itinerary of this company are the 18A-P photolithography, which is a high performance review of the 18A node, and the 18A-PT integration technology. The first one will arrive in 2026. In fact, it is already being tested for the purpose of start large -scale production next year. The 18A-PT photolithography will be ready much later, in 2028, but it has a very important feature: it will be compatible with advanced packaging technology FOVERS DIRECT 3D Thanks to a hybrid interconnection system that allows you to stack chips in the vertical dimension.

This packaging technique will be very important for Intel because it will allow the company currently led by Lip Bu-Tan compete with Advanced packaging technologies Cowos de TSMC and I-Cube, H-Cube and X-Cube of Samsung. The main difference between these implementations lies in the way in which integrated circuits on the substrate are distributed or stacked, a decision that deeply conditions the performance of the interconnections.

Anyway, Intel’s current itinerary does not conclude with the 14A node. Keyvan Esfarjani, which is one of the top responsible for the subsidiary of this company that specializes in the manufacture of integrated circuits, confirmed In February 2024 that the production of chips in the 10A node (which will presumably be equivalent to the lithographs of 1 Nm of its competitors) will begin at the end of 2027. It makes sense if we are in mind that on that date Intel plans to start large -scale manufacturing in the 14A node, although, yes, the mass production of 1 Nm semiconductors will arrive later (possibly well entered 2028).

Image | ASML

More information | Tom’s hardware

In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025