Where Does 5 Really Mean 30? Process Node Naming

By _Cadence - Breakfast Bytes

November 9, 2015

In my first real blog here, about the Cadence/imec 5nm announcement, I asked what was 5nm on a 5nm process. The answer is nothing. Creating the lithography for 5nm is a major milestone but process naming has become very misleading.

It reminds me of that old Bonzo Dog song Shirt where one little part of the lyrics is:

Good morning. Could I have this shirt cleaned "express," please?
Yes, that'll be three weeks, dearie.
Three weeks? But the sign outside says 59-minute cleaners!
Yes, that's just the name of the shop, luv. We take three weeks to do a shirt.

In the same way “5nm is just the name of the process. It takes 30nm to do the metal.”

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