Intel Corp (INTC)

[SemiconEng]

Now that's funny - I posted it on SI, decided not to post here because wbmw had posted something similar, then someone lifts it to post on Yahoo, and now it shows up here!
~dbf


Great catch, in any case. I'm wondering though, if the math doesn't support a bit more. If you take the formula for surface area of a circle, pi multiplied by the radius squared, and apply it to Wafers, I get this...

200mm
3.14 * (100*100) = 31400

300mm
3.14 * (150*150) = 70650

Of course more surface area would also be eaten up by the scribe lines, and defect densities may take some additional die, so..... yeah, ok, double sounds about right. The big benefit, is that it Does NOT cost twice as much to manufacture a 300mm wafer as it does a 200mm wafer, so the cost per die goes down dramatically....

Especially if you switch to a smaller process at the same time

Semi