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As feature sizes shrink cobalt start to look like a better choice for implementing wires than copper for reasons of electromigration and mean free path. Intel
by Symmetry 8y ago
As feature sizes shrink cobalt start to look like a better choice for implementing wires than copper for reasons of electromigration and mean free path. Intel wanted to get a jump on this for their 10nm process and so decided to switch over to cobalt before TSMC, Global, etc. But they've been having huge problems getting it to work and 10nm has slipped from 2017 to at least 2019 and their process lead is now essentially gone.
They've actually released one chip on 10nm but it's performing much worse than the equivalent 14nm chip so it needs a lot more work.
- Apofis 8y agoI'm assuming others are also having difficulty with cobalt, but I'm guessing that once their final new cobalt chip is out, it won't be hard for others to figure out what they did unless Intel can patent it somehow.
- deepnotderp 8y agoApparently Imec claims that for the time being (down to the "3nm" node) copper beats cobalt: https://www.imec-int.com/en/articles/imec-extends-damascene-metallization-towards-the-3nm-technology-node https://www.imec-int.com/en/articles/imec-extends-damascene-...