Intel Corp. earlier this week demonstrated the industry’s first fully-patterned 450mm wafer at an event. The demonstration was not accompanied by any significant announcements and was meant to just show the progress with transition to next-generation wafers to a closed circle of the industry participants.

At the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) this week Intel demonstrated a 450mm wafer that is fully patterned for the first time. This wafer was created after intense collaboration which was necessary between Intel and various suppliers, three of whom are Sumco, Dainippon Printing and Molecular Imprints, according to Intel.

“It is an important step forward and it indicates that there will soon be substantial volume of patterned test wafers for use by suppliers in developing their 450mm tools,” explained Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel during a conversation with X-bit labs.

^{Bob Bruck (left), Intel vice president of technology manufacturing engineering (TME), unveiled the first fully patterned 450mm wafer January 15 at the SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium with Intel's Mario Abravanel. Image by Intel.} 

No public details about the wafer have been revealed officially. A report claims that Molecular Impints’s Jet and Flash (J-Fil) imprint lithography technology has demonstrated 24-nm patterning with line edge roughness of less than 2nm to 3sigma and critical dimension uniformity to 1.2nm 3sigma and offers the prospect of 10nm patterning with single-step process.

Intel is projected to start manufacturing microprocessors, system-on-chip products and other chips on 450mm wafers sometimes from 2015 and onwards.

Tags: Intel, 450mm, Semiconductor