IBM Corp says it will use its new CMOS7 manufacturing process to build copper chips for third parties but won’t license the know- how itself to other companies. News that IBM will offer the foundry services is significant for chip-builders that subcontract the manufacture of their designs – and in some cases the designs as well – to IBM’s Microelectronics division in East Fishkill, New York. They include Intel Corp iAPX-86 cloner Cyrix Corp, whose business could get a significant boost if it can begin selling copper-based Intel-compatible chips before Intel itself is able to, which may not be until 2002 (CI No 3,252). However, as IBM will initially apply the new techniques initially to the creation of copper-based application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), it’s not yet clear when CPUs or RAM memory chips using copper will become available, though IBM does plan to fabricate future PowerPC CPUs using the technique. ASIC suppliers such as LSI LogicCorp and VLSI Technology Inc are seen as having the most to lose from IBM’s advances initially. IBM says it will announce the first ASIC custom logic parts using copper components, instead of the traditional and slower aluminum, by the end of the year.
Beating a path
In addition to the partners it currently sells products and services to, IBM Microelectronics is also expected to get rivals beating a path to its door for its copper chips, and it’s not yet clear what kind of treatment they’ll get. Storage company EMC Corp has been using Motorola Inc’s 68000 family processors, but is switching to PowerPC, which is made by both Motorola Inc and IBM. But if IBM won’t license the copper-based fabrication process to third parties such as Motorola, then EMC will likely turn to IBM for its copper-based PowerPC parts, reports suggest. The same situation could be repeated in workstation and server markets, which use ASIC-like memory controllers and graphics chips. IBM might conceivably end up supplying ASICs to the likes of Sun Microsystems Inc and Silicon Graphics Inc, and that is sure to take business away from current ASIC suppliers. The process IBM has devised involves a new technique for depositing and etching copper. With aluminum chips, the circuit pattern is photographically imposed and then unwanted metal is etched away with chemical gases. IBM says it can’t make copper chips in the same way because while the byproduct of the chemicals and the aluminum vaporizes, with copper the byproduct remains and leads to corrosion which compromises the integrity of the chip, explaining why copper isn’t currently used. IBM doesn’t say how it’s actually putting copper on the wafer but describes a process of polishing the wafer using chemical and mechanical techniques as a substitute for etching. Copper is left in the holes and grooves that comprise the chip’s circuitry. IBM’s supposedly had more than 100 people working on the copper project for over two years. The Microelectronics division first started supplying products outside of the family in 1992 and 40% of its sales are now accounted for by third party business.
