GlobalFoundries skips the 10-nm node on the way to 7-nm FinFETs
GlobalFoundries recently announced it would be adding a 12-nm node to its FD-SOI roadmap, and it's now announcing a more mainstream node for high-performance silicon: 7-nm FinFET. That move follows reports that the company would make exactly this move last month. Surprisingly, GloFo says it'll achieve this shrink using optical lithography alongside "EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) compatibility at key levels." The move to 7-nm transistors is claimed to offer 30% higher performance and two times more logic density compared to GlobalFoundries' 14-nm FinFET process.
The company also expects to re-use much of its existing 14-nm infrastructure to produce 7-nm parts at its Fab 8 campus in New York. Even with that re-use, GlobalFoundries will still ...