AMD Begins 90nm Chip Production

Advanced Micro Devices announced it had begun production of chips using 90nm Silicon-on-Insulator process technology at its Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany. Despite of some information available from unofficial sources, AMD promises to deliver commercial products using this fabrication process next quarter. “90nm process will be phased in with all the advanced features acquired during previous generations, including copper interconnect, a Black Diamond low-k technology and as an SOI process with the base wafers provided by Soitec SA,” said Thomas Sunderman, a director of manufacturing technology within AMD’s corporate manufacturing group, according to EETimes.

There are also plans to utilize strained-silicon technology, AMD is quoted as saying. AMD’s 90nm Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) fabrication process was “nearly fully qualified” in early March. The company is on-track with delivering its first production silicon in mid-April, as announced in early March. Actual commercial production of AMD’s 90nm processors were expected to start in July with availability of the actual products in “September-October-November” timeframe, it was initially said by AMD’s CFO. Advanced Micro Devices now also confirms these plans and intends to deliver commercial 90nm products in Q3 2004.