Semiconductor device fabrication
MOSFET scaling (process nodes)
020 µm – 1968 010 µm – 1971 006 µm – 1974 003 µm – 1977  1.5 µm – 1981 001 µm – 1984 800 nm – 1987 600 nm – 1990 350 nm – 1993 250 nm – 1996 180 nm – 1999 130 nm – 2001 090 nm – 2003 065 nm – 2005 045 nm – 2007 032 nm – 2009 022 nm – 2012 014 nm – 2014 010 nm – 2016 007 nm – 2018 005 nm – 2020 003 nm – 2022
Future 002 nm ~ 2024
Half-nodes Density CMOS Device (multi-gate) Moore's law Transistor count Semiconductor Industry Nanoelectronics

The 180 nm process is a MOSFET (CMOS) semiconductor process technology that was commercialized around the 1998–2000 timeframe by leading semiconductor companies, starting with TSMC^[1] and Fujitsu,^[2] then followed by Sony, Toshiba,^[3] Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments and IBM.

History

The origin of the 180 nm value is historical, as it reflects a trend of 70% scaling every 2–3 years. The naming is formally determined by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS).

Some of the first CPUs manufactured with this process include Intel Coppermine family of Pentium III processors. This was the first technology using a gate length shorter than that of light used for contemporary lithography, which had a wavelength of 193 nm.

Some more recent microprocessors and microcontrollers (e.g. PIC) are using this technology because it is typically low cost and does not require upgrading of existing equipment. In 2022, Google sponsored open-source hardware projects using GlobalFoundries 180nm MCU (microcontroller) process on multi-project wafers.^[4]

In 1988, an IBM research team led by Iranian engineer Bijan Davari fabricated a 180 nm dual-gate MOSFET using a CMOS process.^[5] The 180 nm CMOS process was later commercialized by TSMC in 1998,^[1] and then Fujitsu in 1999.^[2]

Processors using 180 nm manufacturing technology

• Intel Coppermine E—October 1999
• ATI Radeon R100 and RV100 Radeon 7000—2000
• Nintendo GameCube's Gekko CPU—2000
• Sony PlayStation 2's Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer—March 2000^[3]
• AMD Athlon Thunderbird—June 2000
• AMD Duron Spitfire–June 2000
• AMD Duron Morgan–August 2001
• Intel Celeron (Willamette)—May 2002
• Motorola PowerPC 7445 and 7455 (Apollo 6)—January 2002

References