According to the company, the process is expected to deliver more than twice the logic density and a 30% performance boost, compared to current 16/14nm foundry FinFET offerings. Because the process will be based on an industry standard FinFET transistor architecture and will use optical lithography – with EUV compatibility at key levels – the approach is likely to accelerate move from the company’s 14nm FinFET technology.
“The industry is converging on 7nm FinFET as the next long lived node, which represents a unique opportunity for Globalfoundries to compete at the leading edge,” said CEO Sanjay Jha. “We are well positioned to deliver a differentiated 7nm FinFET technology by tapping our years of experience manufacturing high-performance chips, the talent and know-how of our former IBM Microelectronics colleagues and the world-class R&D pipeline from our research alliance. No other foundry can match this legacy of manufacturing high-performance chips.”
The 7nm FinFET technology will be supported by a full platform of foundation and complex IP, including an ASIC offering. Test chips with IP from lead customers have already started running in Fab 8 and the technology is expected to be ready for customer product design starts in the second half of 2017, with ramp to risk production in early 2018.
