The 45 nanometer (45 nm) lithography process is a full node semiconductor manufacturing process following the 55 nm process stopgap. Commercial integrated circuit manufacturing using 45 nm process began in 2007. This technology was superseded by the 40 nm process (HN) / 32 nm process (FN) in 2010.

Industry

In January of 2006 Intel announced that they've been able to fabricate the first fully functional SRAM chips on a 45 nm process. As a preview Intel showcased 45nm SRAM chip (shown below) packing more than 1 billion transistors. Intel opened 3 45 nm facilities, their initial D1D facility in Oregon, Fab 32 in Arizona and Fab 28 in Israel. Intel's 45 nm process is the first time high-k + metal gate transistors was used in high-volume manufacturing process.

Fab
Process Name​
1st Production​
Type​
Wafer​
​
Contacted Gate Pitch​
Interconnect Pitch (M1P)​
SRAM bit cell (HD)​
SRAM bit cell (LP)​
DRAM bit cell

Intel		Fujitsu		TI		Toshiba / Sony / NEC		Samsung		IBM / Toshiba / Sony / AMD
P1266 (CPU) / P1266.8 (SoC) / P1269 (SoC)		CS-300						11LP
2006		2008		2008		2006		2007		2007
Bulk										PDSOI
300mm
Value	65 nm Δ	Value	65 nm Δ	Value	65 nm Δ	Value	65 nm Δ	Value	65 nm Δ	Value	65 nm Δ
180 nm	0.82x	190 nm	?x	? nm	?x	180 nm	?x	? nm	?x	190 nm	0.76x
160 nm	0.76x	? nm	?x	? nm	?x	? nm	?x	? nm	?x	? nm	?x
0.346 µm²	0.61x	0.225 µm²	?x	0.255 µm²	?x	0.248 µm²	?x	0.29 µm²	0.54x	0.370 µm²	0.57x
0.3816 µm²	0.56x							0.359 µm²	0.53x
								0.11 µm²	0.58x	0.067 µm²	0.53x

Intel

• 

  6T SRAM Bit-Cell

• 

  Die photo of an Intel 45 nm shuttle test chip including 153 MiB SRAM and logic test circuits

• 

  300 mm wafer with 45 nm shuttle test chips

• 

  Intel engineer holding 300 mm wafer with 45 nm shuttle test chips

• 

  Intel 300 mm wafer with 45 nm shuttle test chips

Intel 45nm Design Rules
Layer	Pitch	Thick	Aspect Ratio
Isolation	200 nm	200 nm	-
Contacted Gate	180 nm	60 nm	--
Metal 1	160 nm	144 nm	1.8
Metal 2	160 nm	144 nm	1.8
Metal 3	160 nm	144 nm	1.8
Metal 4	240 nm	216 nm	1.8
Metal 5	280 nm	252 nm	1.8
Metal 6	360 nm	324 nm	1.8
Metal 7	560 nm	504 nm	1.7
Metal 8	810 nm	720 nm	1.8
Metal 9	30.5 µm	7 µm	0.4

45 nm Microprocessors

• AMD
  • Athlon II
  • Opteron
  • Phenom II
• Freescale
  • QorIQ
• IBM
  • Power7
• Intel
  • Atom
  • Celeron
  • Core 2 Duo
  • Core 2 Extreme
  • Core 2 Quad
  • Core 2 Quad Extreme
  • Core 2 Solo
  • Core i3
  • Core i5
  • Core i7
  • Core i7EE
  • Pentium Dual-Core
  • Pentium
  • Xeon

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.n Chips== This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

45 nm Microarchitectures

• AMD
  • K10
• IBM
  • z196
• Intel
  • Bonnell
  • Nehalem
  • Penryn
• VIA Technologies
  • Isaiah

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Documents

• Samsung foundry - 45 nm, 65 nm, 90 nm guide (August, 2007)
• Intel
  • New Intel 45 nm Processors
  • High-k + Metal Gate Transistor Breakthrough on 45 nm Microprocessors
  • From sand to circuits

References

• Mistry, Kaizad, et al. "A 45nm logic technology with high-k+ metal gate transistors, strained silicon, 9 Cu interconnect layers, 193nm dry patterning, and 100% Pb-free packaging." Electron Devices Meeting, 2007. IEDM 2007. IEEE International. IEEE, 2007.