Intel Ivy Bridge unveiled — The first commercial tri-gate, high-k, metal-gate CPU

Abstract

The year 2007 saw the introduction of the first high-k/metal gate (HKMG) devices into the marketplace. This marked the return of metal-gate technology on silicon for the first time since polysilicon gates became ubiquitous in the early 1970s. Intel was the first to use high-k/metal gate in its 45-nm product. Other leading-edge manufacturers have now launched HKMG products in both gate-first and gate-last forms, and now the first 22-nm FinFET products have come onto the market - the Intel Ivy Bridge CPU. Chipworks, as a supplier of competitive intelligence to the semiconductor and electronics industries, monitors the evolution of chip processes as they come into commercial production. Chipworks has obtained samples of this leading-edge part and performed structural analyses to examine the features and manufacturing processes of the device. This paper discusses some of the different features we have seen within the chip, and illustrates the structure of the tri-gate transistors.