TSMC to Provide 14 nm finFET Design Kits by the End of 2012

TSMC has recently announced at its 2012 Technology Symposium conference that it would provide finFET design kits for the 14nm node by this year’s end.

The foundry seems to be keen on pursuing the finFET concept and it encourages customers to build and design new architectures with finFETs in mind.

It’s no wonder TSMC’s roadmap is heading this way as the foundry’s old Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Dr. Chenming Calvin Hu PhD. is the main architect behind the idea.

Now, Dr. Hu is TSMC distinguished professor of microelectronics at the University of California, Berkeley, but between 2001 and 2004, he was the CTO of TSMC.

It’s strange how Intel manages to implement other companies’ ideas before the initiators do it. They are the first to implement finFETs, they were the first to build dual core CPUs ahead of AMD, and also, they were the first to deliver “APUs” before AMD’s Fusion.

TSMC plans to use bulk technology for finFETs, but this type of transistors will only come with the company’s 14 nm production starting in 2014.