Times Union: IBM's new 7nm chip made in Albany at SUNY
Poly
Published:
Thursday, July 9, 2015 - 15:27
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="353"]
SUNY Poly’s Michael Liehr, left, and IBM’s Bala Haranand look at one
of the first wafers ever made comprised of 7 nanometer chips on July
2 in a clean room at SUNY Poly’s NanoFab X clean room in Albany.
(Photo from IBM)[/caption]
IBM announced today that it had manufactured computer chips using 7 nanometer transistors, a first for the semiconductor industry, at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany. Above is a photo of one of the wafers with the new chips printed into it.
The new chips will provide a 50 percent increase in performance over 10nm chips, which are still in development. They were made entirely at IBM’s 300mm wafer manufacturing facilities at SUNY Poly.
“Albany played a critical role in the milestone,” said IBM spokewoman Christine Vu. “We intend to incorporate 7nm into the roadmaps for IBM systems in the future.”
Several companies are working toward 7nm chips, which are two generations ahead of the current 22nm and soon 14nm chips. IBM, working at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, said it perfected the manufacturing for 7nm chips using extreme ultra violet lithography and silicon germanium in parts of the chip instead of just silicon.
