Technology transfer

Overview

Technology transfer, in chip manufacturing, is the controlled move of a process, product or test flow from one site to another, for example from a development line to a volume fab or from one fab to a second source, with the receiving site proving that it produces the same results. It carries recipes, equipment settings, specifications, materials and know-how, and ends with qualification at the new site. The aim is to reach volume quickly without losing yield, quality or reliability.

How it works

A transfer starts with a defined package from the sending site: the process flow and recipes, equipment types and configurations, materials and suppliers, control limits, test programmes and the data that show how the product should perform. The receiving site installs and matches its tools, runs the process, compares its results with the source, and qualifies the product before shipping it to customers.

Intel's Copy EXACTLY! method, described in the Intel Technology Journal in 1998, is the best-known strict approach. Everything that might affect the process or how it is run is copied in fine detail, down to piping, board revisions and software, unless copying is physically impossible or a change brings an overwhelming competitive benefit. Matching is checked at four levels in turn: physical inputs such as gas flows and temperatures, process step outputs such as film thickness, module test structures, and finally product characteristics, with formal statistical tests at each level. Later improvements go through change control and are made at all sites together.

Looser transfers let the receiving fab adapt the process to its existing tools and methods, which can save effort but makes problems harder to trace. Intel reported that under that older approach yields at different factories diverged and took months of task force work to converge, while with Copy EXACTLY! two new factories matched the yields of the development line. Transfers late in a product's life follow the same logic: NXP, for example, reserves the right to move production of long-life products to another facility, with requalification.

Examples

• A new logic process moved from a development fab to a volume fab, with tool-by-tool matching before customer products start.
• A mature product moved to another fab when its original line closes, then requalified and announced to customers.
• A test programme ported from one test floor to another, with correlation runs showing that both sites sort the same parts the same way.
• Intel's 0.5 micron generation, the first transferred with Copy EXACTLY!, so that new factories matched the development line's yields.

Why it matters

A slow or poorly matched transfer delays revenue and can bring quality problems that appear only after customers start building, so transfers are run as formal projects. Technology transfer engineers and managers, process integration engineers, product engineers and second-source qualification managers carry them out, and customers are commonly notified when their parts move to a new site.

In the chip lifecycle, technology transfer happens when a process leaves development for its first production fab, when capacity is added at another site, when production moves for cost or continuity reasons, and late in life to keep a product available.

It matters most to: Process Integration Engineer, Product Transfer Manager, Second-Source and Dual-Fab Qualification Manager, Technology Transfer Engineer, Technology Transfer Manager

Common confusions

Not the same as research technology transfer

In government and university usage, technology transfer means turning research into practical use, for example through patent licences and cooperative research agreements, as NIST's Technology Partnerships Office does. In a fab it means moving a working process between sites.

Not the same as copy exact

Copy exact is one strict method of technology transfer, in which the receiving site copies everything that could affect the process. Other transfers allow controlled adaptations.

Sources

1. The Evolution of Intel's Copy EXACTLY! Technology Transfer Method (Chris J. McDonald, Intel Technology Journal, Q4 1998) (opens in a new tab), Intel, 2026-10-22
2. Product Longevity (opens in a new tab), NXP Semiconductors, 2026-10-22
3. Technology Partnerships Office (opens in a new tab), NIST, 2026-10-22
4. Copy Exactly! (Wikipedia) (opens in a new tab), Wikimedia Foundation, 2026-10-22

Related terms

• Copy exact
• Product qualification
• PCN

Where it appears on the Hub

Used on 18 pages of the Hub. In each group, the pages that mention it most come first.