Industry Expert Blogs
Why Maturity and Cost Make 180nm the 'hot node' again-December 15, 2010 |
Oscar Wilde in his 1889 essay ‘The Decay of Lying’ said that ‘Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life’. I do not know about art but from my perspective as a semiconductor industry professional I can say that a technology node does imitate life. Just as a person goes through various different roles in life through the ages, so does a process technology node. As exhibit A, I present the humble 180nm technology node, the work-horse of the semiconductor industry. Think it’s a ‘has been’ node? Think again: it’s powering key features in hot new smart mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets with more than the cutting-edge nodes.