Intel Starts Production of 45 nm Penryn Processors

Transistor gates based on Hafnium and metal alloys

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by Adrian Offerman

October 25, 2007 - Today, Intel started volume production of its 45 nm chips at its new Fab 32 in Chandler, Arizona. The first Penryn processors are scheduled to be introduced on November 12.

Intel started the construction of Fab 32 in August 2005. The total costs are three billion dollars. The complete factory measures 1 million square feet, including 184,000 square feet of clean room space. More than 1,000 employees will operate the factory.

Hafnium and Metal Alloys

The 45 nm transistors use a Hafnium-based high-k material for the gate dielectric and metal materials for the gate electrode. The implementation of high-k and metal materials marks the biggest change in transistor technology since the introduction of polysilicon gate MOS transistors in the late 1960s, said Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. The combination of the metal gates and the high-k gate dielectric leads to transistors with low current leakage and high performance.

Process name	Lithography	First production
P1262	90 nm	2003
P1264	65 nm	2005
P1266	45 nm	2007
P1268	32 nm	2009
P1270	22 nm	2011

Silicon dioxide has been used to make the transistor gate dielectric for more than fourty years because of its manufacturability and ability to deliver continued transistor performance improvements as it has been made ever thinner. Intel has shrunk the silicon dioxide gate dielectric to as little as 1.2 nm thick - equal to five atomic layers - on its previous 65 nm process technology, but the continued shrinking has led to increased current leakage through the gate dielectric, resulting in wasted electric current and unnecessary heat.

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