Intel 18A Chip Designs: Milestone Progress in 18A Manufacturing for Two Chips

Intel has announced major progress with its 18A manufacturing process, unveiling two key products based on this advanced technology: Panther Lake (AI PC client processor) and Clearwater Forest (server processor). These Intel 18A chip designs have completed manufacturing and have already booted and enhanced operating systems. This achievement marks a significant milestone, with the company reaching this point in less than two quarters after tapeout.

Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest processors demonstrate the health of Intel 18A. This technology is expected to help Intel regain process leadership in 2025. The company plans to begin production of the two products in 2025, but it has not announced specific dates yet. Additionally, Intel expects the first external customer to complete tapeout on Intel 18A in the first half of next year.

Intel’s 18A node features RibbonFET gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and PowerVia back-side power supply technology. These milestones show that Intel’s Foundries are the first to successfully implement RibbonFET and PowerVia for foundry customers.

RibbonFET can tightly control the current in the transistor channel, further shrinking the chip component size while reducing leakage, a factor that becomes critical as chip density increases. PowerVia optimizes signal routing by decoupling power delivery from the front side of the wafer. This reduces resistance and improves power efficiency.

Panther Lake meets DDR memory performance targets. On the other hand, in 2025, Clearwater Forest, a prototype for future CPU and AI chips, will mark the industry’s first mass-produced high-performance solution that combines RibbonFET, PowerVia, and Fveros Direct 3D to achieve higher densities and power handling capabilities. Clearwater Forest is also a leading product of Intel’s 3-T-based chip technology.

By leveraging Intel’s foundry approach to system foundry, the company expects the two products to deliver significant improvements in performance per watt, transistor density, and cell utilization.

Intel’s EDA and IP partners are updating their tools and design flows with access to Intel 18A PDK 1.0. This will enable external foundry customers to begin their Intel 18A chip designs.