A manufacturing process technology, or node, from pathfinding and technology definition through module development, process integration, design kit releases at rising maturity, test chips and yield learning, and process reliability qualification to customer design enablement, risk production, high-volume manufacturing, continuous improvement and the node's end of life. The output is a qualified process and the design kit that customers build their chips on.
Process technology (node) lifecycle: 12 stages and 18 gates, from Pathfinding & Exploration to Node End of Life.
12 stages and 18 gates, 3 of the gates technical readiness reviews (TR). Each stop opens its stage; each sign opens its gate. Point at a stop or tab to it to read what the stage is for. What the codes mean
In collaboration with The Digital Electronics Blog (opens in a new tab)
A dashed sign with a TR tag is a technical readiness review gate.
In collaboration with The Digital Electronics Blog (opens in a new tab)
Exploring the device architectures, materials, patterning approaches and interconnect options a future node could use, with simulation, short experiments and early design studies, and narrowing them to a concept worth developing.
Pathfinding approval gateTechnology concept selected gateTR1, technical readiness review
Fixing what the node will offer: its performance, power and density targets, the device menu, the metal stack and design rule intent, the cost of ownership and the business case, and releasing an early access design kit for design studies.
Developing each unit process the node needs, such as patterning, etch, deposition, implant, thermal steps, planarisation and cleans, until each module meets its own capability targets on the chosen equipment and materials.
Joining the modules into one integrated flow, learning from short loops and full-flow lots, tuning the devices to their targets, and freezing a process baseline that the design kit, test chips and qualification are built on.
Building the process design kit from the baseline: device models, the design rule manual, physical verification and extraction decks and technology files, released in versions of rising maturity, with the foundation libraries started alongside.
Running test vehicles with memory arrays, defect monitors, ring oscillators and device and reliability structures through the baseline, measuring them, and driving defect density and parametric spread down until the process is ready for customer designs.
Preparing customers to design on the node: a pre-production design kit, certified tool flows, foundation and third-party IP, multi-project wafer shuttles and design support, through to the first customer tape-outs.
Pre-production PDK release gateFirst customer tape-outs gate
Proving the process meets its intrinsic reliability targets, for gate dielectrics, transistor ageing, interconnect and other failure mechanisms, through stress tests on qualification vehicles to published methods such as those from JEDEC, and recording the result as the technology qualification.
Running the first customer product wafers on the qualified process at an agreed level of risk, supporting customers as they qualify their own products, readying tools, materials and capacity, and releasing the production design kit.
Releasing the node to volume production, ramping wafer starts across tools and possibly several fabs, holding the process in control with statistical process control and excursion response, and raising yield to its mature level.
Improving a node already in volume: cost reductions, yield and performance improvements, design kit updates, and derivative or enhanced versions of the node, each change qualified and notified to customers under change control.
Withdrawing the node in an orderly way when demand, equipment or materials can no longer sustain it: notifying customers, taking last-time orders, running the final wafer starts, planning equipment and materials supply to the end, and archiving the process record.
The full lifecycle detail, with its charts, flows, tables and every section, is for registered members. Registration is free and takes a minute. You come back to this page afterwards.