IC设计公司热衷28nm工艺

台湾代工巨头台积电首席执行官表示，芯片设计厂商对28nm工艺产品的热情度极高，比40nm工艺准备期同阶段产品数量多三倍以上。

“智能手机和平板电脑是新的杀手级应用，”台积电欧洲区总裁Maria Marced说，“我们预见到28nm设计的爆发。我们流水线上已经拥有89

种产品定案（tape-out，准备流片的方案）。”Marced补充说。她表示台积电目前拥有世界上90%的28nm产品预案。

同时该公司28nm硅已经对部分客户出货，Marced说。“移动互联网要求在同等性能情况下功耗要低得多。”台积电将同时提供高K金属栅级（HKMG）和传统多晶硅工艺，而20nm产品预计在2012年下半年投产。

然而，台积电不准备部署据说是移动设备的福音的FinFET技术，至少14nm节点之前不会。这一策略与英特尔不同，英特尔最近发布了名为三栅

极技术的FinFET器件的应用，使用该公司的1270工艺制程（即22nm工艺）。目前1270工艺准备下半年于英特尔亚利桑那州的F32工厂量产（参阅电子工程专辑报道：英特尔提前量产3D晶体管，进入22nm时代）。

这使得英特尔在工艺尺寸方面比台积电领先了一年左右，并在FinFET器件的应用方面领先更多。据报道FinFET器件在这些精微尺寸上与平面晶体管相比功耗表现更好。

Marced表示，由于英特尔是一家垂直集成化的企业，控制了从设计到制造到测试的各个环节，需要引入到FinFET器件的制造和测试技术都能比台积电更快实现。“而台积电是一家代工企业，由客户提供产品设计，因此需要需要为FinFET器件准备好生态系统，这意味着包括设计工具，IP，设计套件等。对于我们，20nm仍将是平面技术。”

Marced认为台积电2011年代工部门增长速度将超过整体代工产业的原因之一，是杀手级应用智能手机和平板电脑的爆发性增长。台积电的目标是2011年营收增长20%，而预计整体产业增长为15%。同时该公司估计整体半导体市场将仅仅增长2%。

编译：Aileen Zhu

点击参考原文：Design starts triple for TSMC at 28-nm

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Design starts triple for TSMC at 28-nm

Peter Clarke

The number of IC design starts at 28-nm for foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is more than three times what they were at the equivalent stage in the roll out of 40-nm manufacturing processes, according to a company executive.

"The smartphone and tablet is the new killer application," said Maria Marced, president of TSMC Europe. "We are seeing a design explosion at 28-nm. We have 89 tape-outs in the pipeline," Marced added. She said that by TSMC's estimate the company currently holds 90 percent of the world's pending tape-outs at 28-nm.

And the company is already shipping 28-nm silicon for some customers, Marced said. "The mobile Internet is demanding the same performance at much lower power." TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) is offering both high-k metal gate (HKMG) and conventional polysilicon processes at 28-nm and has 20-nm production slated for volume production in the second-half of 2012.

However, TSMC will not deploy FinFET technology, said to be a boon for mobile applications, until at least the 14-nm node. This is in contrast to Intel Corp., which recently announced the use of FinFETs, which it calls tri-gate technology, on its 1270 manufacturing process (22-nm). The 1270 process is starting to ramp production now with volume production at Intel's F32 fab in Chandler, Arizona scheduled for the second half of 2011.

This gives Intel a lead of about one year over TSMC in terms of geometry and a longer one in terms of the use of FinFETs. FinFETs are said to give a power-performance benefit versus planar transistors at these fine geometries.

Marced said that because Intel is vertically integrated and controls all aspects of design, manufacturing and test it has been able to introduce FinFETs more quickly than TSMC. "We need the ecosystem to be ready for FinFETs, which means design tools, IP, design kits and so on. For us 20-nm will be planar."

The explosion of designs for the smartphone/tablet killer application is one reason that Marced believes TSMC can outgrow the foundry sector in 2011. TSMC is aiming for 20 percent revenue growth in 2011 while it expects the sector to achieve 15 percent growth. Meanwhile it reckons on the semiconductor market overall being only 2 percent up.

编译：Aileen Zhu