Intel Corp (INTC)

[mas]

http://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/28nm.htm

The 28nm generation represents TSMC's most energy-efficient and high-performance method of manufacturing to date. 28nm is the first generation that foundry industry starts to use high-K metal gate (HKMG) process. Still, poly/oxynitride process is offered to meet customer's time-to-market need.

The 28nm Process Family

TSMC's 28nm technology delivers twice the gate density of the 40nm process and also features an SRAM cell size shrink of 50 percent.

The low power (LP) process is the first available 28nm technology. It is ideal for low standby power applications such as cellular baseband. The 28LP process boasts a 20 percent speed improved over the 40LP process at the same leakage/gate.

The 28nm high performance (HP) process is the first option to use high-k metal gate process technology. Featuring superior speed and performance, the 28HP process targets CPU, GPU, FPGA, PC, networking, and consumer electronics applications. The 28HP process supports a 45 percent speed improvement over the 40G process at the same leakage/gate.

The 28nm low power with high-k metal gates (HPL) technology adopts the same gate stack as HP technology while meeting more stringent low leakage requirements with a trade of performance speed. With a wide leakage and performance spectrum, N28HPL is best suitable for cellular baseband, application process, wireless connectivity, and programmable logics. The 28HPL process reduces both standby and operation power by more than 40%.

TSMC also provides high performance for mobile applications (HPM) technology to address the need for applications requiring high speed as well as low leakage power. Such technology can provide better speed than 28HP and similar leakage power as 28LP. With such wide performance/leakage coverage, 28HPM is also ideal for many applications from networking, tablet, to mobile consumer products.

The 28nm family will also provide a wider variety of metal options to support a broad range of product applications for better trade-off between performance and density.