Intel scraps its 20A process node and bets the farm on 18A – Arrow Lake is built by TSMC

Intel shifts focus to 18A and scraps their 20A lithography node – Arrow Lake to be fabbed with TSMC

Thanks to CEO Pat Gelsinger’s “Five Nodes in Five Years” strategy, Intel is undergoing a lithography transformation. That said, the shift has been a bumpy ride. Intel has confirmed that they have moved resources away from their new 20A node and are focusing on 18A, which is due to launch in 2025.

Intel has effectively scrapped its 20A node, meaning that its new Arrow Lake CPUs will be built by “external partners,” likely TSMC. With 20A, Intel has successfully integrated both their RibbonFET gate-all-around transistor architecture and PowerVia backside power delivery technology. However, it looks like 20A was not ready for Arrow Lake CPU production, making it better for Intel to shift focus to their next node, 18A.

Below is what Intel’s Ben Bell had to say about the transition.

Since releasing the Intel 18A Process Design Kit (PDK) 1.0 in July, we have seen positive response across our ecosystem and are encouraged by what we’re seeing from Intel 18A in the fab. It’s powered on and booting on operating systems, healthy, and yielding well – and we remain on track for launch in 2025.

One of the benefits of our early success on Intel 18A is that it enables us to shift engineering resources from Intel 20A earlier than expected as we near completion of our five-nodes-in-four-years plan. With this decision, the Arrow Lake processor family will be built primarily using external partners and packaged by Intel Foundry.

The journey to Intel 18A has been built on the groundwork laid by Intel 20A.

It enabled us to explore and refine new techniques, materials and transistor architectures that are crucial for advancing Moore’s Law. With Intel 20A, we successfully integrated both RibbonFET gate-all-around transistor architecture and PowerVia backside power delivery for the first time, and these learnings have directly informed the first commercial implementation of both technologies in Intel 18A. This points to the iterative nature of semiconductor innovation, and we’re excited to bring these advancements to all Intel Foundry customers.

Focusing resources on Intel 18A also helps us optimize our engineering investments. When we set out to build Intel 20A, we anticipated lessons learned on Intel 20A yield quality would be part of the bridge to Intel 18A. But with current Intel 18A defect density already at D0 <0.40, the economics are right for us to make the transition now.

Ben Sell is vice president of Technology Development at Intel Corporation

Intel has confirmed that they have already powered on 18A-based Panther Lake CPUs in their labs. Intel’s 18A node will be used to build both Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest. These CPUs will serve the Client AI CPU and server CPU markets, respectively.

Panther Lake will succeed Arrow Lake in 2025, making Intel’s move to TSMC temporary. From Panther Lake onwards, Intel should return to its own lithography nodes. Furthermore, 18A may also see Intel produce high-end parts for 3rd parties.

You can join the discussion on Intel betting the farm on their 18A node on the OC3D Forums.