SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Officials from Intel Corp. here today said that shipment delays of Silicon Valley Group's 193-nm, argon-fluoride (ArF) lithography tools will not impact its ability to deliver chips based on 0.13-micron design rules this year. In fact, Intel will announce its first chip product based on 0.13-micron technology on July 30.
As reported last week, ASM Lithography's Silicon Valley Group unit once again delayed the shipments of its latest 193-nm tools by another three to four months. Now, ASML's SVG unit will ship these tools in October (see July 18 story ).
Originally, SVG was supposed to deliver to Intel its so-called Micrascan 193 high-numerical aperture (HNA) scanners in April. But at that time, SVG said it would delay the shipment schedule from April to July (see April 25 story ). Earlier this year, ASML of the Netherlands acquired SVG of San Jose for $1.6 billion.
It was believed that Intel was supposed to use SVG's 193-nm tools to process wafers at the 130-nm (0.13-micron) node. But an Intel spokesman clarified the matter, saying that SVG's 193-nm systems are actually targeted for Intel's next-generation, 100-nm (0.10-micron) technology node--not for the 130-nm node.
Intel's 100-nm process technology, called P1262, is due out in 2003. The company will reportedly ramp up this process technology in its various 300-mm fabs.
"The delivery of 193-nm tools will have no impact on our 0.13-micron process technology," the spokesman said. "We are using the 193-nm tools for the 100-nm node--not the 130-nm node," he added.
The spokesman also insisted that the company's 0.13-micron ramp is on schedule. On July 30, in fact, the Santa Clara-based chip giant is readying its first chip products based on 0.13-micron technology, it was noted.
These chips have been expected for some time. As reported, Intel's code-named Tualatin family of processors are 0.13-micron versions of its Pentium III MPU line. Current Pentium III chips are based on 0.18-micron design rules. (see June 16 story ).
"We've been shipping chips based on 0.13-micron design rules for months now," the spokesman said.
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