World’s smallest chip in the making

NEW YORK: Chartered Semiconductor, IBM and Infineon on Wednesday said they had agreed to a joint deal to advance development of the next frontier of computer chip manufacturing technology.

In a joint release, Chartered and IBM, two of the world's four biggest contract makers of custom computer chips, together with Infineon, a major maker of memory chips, said they were working to speed development of 65 nanometer chips.

One-hundred nanometers are roughly 1/1000th the width of a human hair. The new venture could enable chips to be built with circuit wires that are just 65 nanometers apart. The tiniest chips now being commercially built are 90 nanometers in width.

IBM and Chartered production are among the first to be built on 65-nanometer circuits developed and produced in the new facility, called the Advanced Semiconductor Technology Center, or ASTC 300, which began operations last month.

Nearly 200 engineers from the three companies will work together to define manufacturing process tools for next-generation semiconductors.

The multibillion-dollar investments required to build new plants and the increasing complexity and risk of failure in producing molecular-scale circuits, has collapsed the number of companies competing to build the most advanced semiconductors to under a dozen players worldwide from scores previously.

Hundreds of electronics companies now forgo building their own plants and rely instead on manufacturing specialists. These include IBM and Chartered who compete with market leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Micro Electronics Corp., also of Taiwan.

Financial terms were not disclosed. In a statement, the partners said the multi-year venture would build on each company's strengths.These include Infineon's low-power silicon expertise and IBM's leading process technology.

Chartered has been working to develop a common foundry process platform that scales from 90 nanometer through next-generation 65 nanometer technology and provides a path to the next step down in scale to 45 nanometer manufacturing.

The work will be conducted in IBM's newly-opened East Fishkill, N.Y. development laboratory.

© Reuters