GlobalFoundries Gives 7 nm Capacity Update, Mulls Skipping 5 nm
 

igh-ranking executives of GlobalFoundries this month gave several updates concerning future plans of the contract maker of semiconductors. As it appears, in a bid to provide more tangible advantages to its customers and not to invest in short-lasting nodes, the company is mulling skipping 5 nm manufacturing technology like it did with the 10 nm fabrication process. In addition, the company admits that its only leading-edge fab may not have enough capacity for all of its customers at 7 nm, and some of its clients may need to work with other foundries to meet their demand.
7LP On Track for HVM, But Capacities Are Concern

Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries, said in an interview with EETimes that the company’s first-generation 7LP process technology (7 nm leading performance), which relies exclusively on DUV step and scan systems, is on-track for high-volume manufacturing in the second half of this year. One of the first customers to use this tech will be AMD, which briefly announced its 7LP Vega GPU for a couple of times already. Not everything is rosy with 7LP though.

According to Mr. Patton, since the Fab 8 produces leading edge chips for all of the company’s clients, its 7LP capacity may be limited, which is why AMD may not get enough capacity. The good news is that GF’s 1st Gen 7LP is similar to TSMC’s CLN7FF (which also does not use EUV) and therefore clients with significant demand will be able to port their designs from one foundry to another with some ease. Under the wafer supply agreement signed in 2016, AMD has rights to use foundries other than GlobalFoundries in certain situations. Though whether this capacity-constrained situation actually comes to pass, and whether or not AMD and other partners of GlobalFoundries will have enough time to develop all the designs they need for both foundries should it occur, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile one thing that should be kept in mind is that GlobalFoundries is planning for three generations of 7LP processes, with two of them using EUV lithography and ASML’s Twinscan NXE steppers. As of early 2018, Fab 8 had only one EUV stepper installed with another being constructed. Meanwhile, there is a space for two more, so eventually GlobalFoundries will have four Twinscan NXE machines in Fab 8.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12831...-skipping-5-nm