At its Vision 2025 conference, Intel announced the start of risk production for its 18A process node. This marks the beginning of low-volume test manufacturing for the node.
Intel’s Kevin O’Buckley, the senior vice president of Foundry Services, made this announcement as Intel approaches the completion of its goal to deliver five new process nodes in a four-year period a program starting in 2021 under ex-CEO Pat Gelsinger. This Vision 2025 conference is also the first to feature Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, on stage.
Intel announced its four-year development plan in June 2021. Within this plan, Intel canceled high-volume manufacturing of the 20A node to reduce costs and shifted its focus to preparing it for production. The 18A node is nearing completion, and the 5N4Y plan emphasizes having nodes ready within the four-year window rather than immediately launching high-volume manufacturing for each.
Risk production is a key step toward launching a new node. It shows Intel believes the node is close to high-volume manufacturing. The company has already built many 18A test chips, sometimes with several designs per wafer.
During the risk production stage, Intel manufactures wafers with a single-chip design in low volumes to refine the manufacturing process and test the node and its process design kit. Following earlier research, design, and prototyping phases, Intel expects to ramp up production later in 2024.
Risk production entails low yields and performance as Intel refines manufacturing. Customers use this stage for qualification or engineering samples without the strict yield guarantees of fully qualified manufacturing nodes.
Some customers accept these risks to evaluate the node early and gain a head start on competitors.
Intel has not said whether the 18A risk production is for its Panther Lake processors, due later this year, or for outside customers. Panther Lake, the first 18A processors, will enter mass production later this year. Thus, Panther Lake likely leads the risk production, matching Intel’s usual timeline from risk production to high-volume manufacturing.
Although Intel pioneered several new technologies on its cancelled 20A node, the 18A chips will be the first productized chips to feature both backside power delivery and ribbon-FET gate-all-around (GAA) transistors. Power via provides refined power routing to improve performance and transfer transistor density, while ribbon-FET offers higher density and faster switching in a smaller area.
Intel is also working on its broader foundry map, including the upcoming 18A node, its first to use high NA EUV lithography. Additional node extensions will help Intel Foundry Services serve more applications.
These changes are occurring as Intel Foundry faces challenges amid shifting economic conditions. For example, Intel has delayed building its Ohio site until 2030. Still, the news about 18A risk production matches reports that Intel is already making its first 18A wafers in Arizona.
Additional details about Intel’s timeline and future production stages will likely be provided at the Foundry Direct Connect event scheduled for late April 2024.
Risk production, while it sounds scary, is actually an industry-standard terminology. The importance of risk production is that we have reached a point where we can freeze it. Buckle O’Buckley explained: “Our customers have validated that 18A is good enough for any product, and we now have to do the risk part, which is to scale from making hundreds of units per day to thousands, tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands. Risk production is scaling manufacturing up and making sure that we can meet not just the capabilities of the technology but the capabilities at scale.”
