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The metal-filled trenches in the silicon need to survive high temperatures, so according to the article copper is out of the question. They "experimented with r
by hliyan 5y ago
The metal-filled trenches in the silicon need to survive high temperatures, so according to the article copper is out of the question. They "experimented with ruthenium and tungsten" but it's not clear whether they actually built something or whether it was all simulation. Either way, this is likely to make the chips more expensive.
- unnouinceput 5y agoIt's a simulation, they don't even have a prototype yet. Quote: "Simulation studies are a great start, and they show the CPU-design-level potential of back-side PDNs with BPR. But there is a long road ahead to bring these technologies to high-volume manufacturing. There are still significant materials and manufacturing challenges that need to be solved. "
- brennanpeterson 5y agoI doubt this is true. Mike Mayberry (Intel) softly announced buried power rail last year, as a 'within 5 years' tech. That suggests it has been prototyped, since from final tests to HVM is at least 2 years. Maybe not great. Within 10 means an idea with simulation. Within 5 means prototyped. Interesting means never. Or that, at least, is my decoder ring.
- nine_k 5y agoFor one thing, if a tungsten wire is an order of magnitude better conductor than a layer of copper you normally would use, the situation with power delivery is indeed dire. Tungsten's specific resistivity is about 4 times as high as copper's.