Intel’s recipe for FUSI
Intel was not only the first manufacturer to produce a 65nm advanced logic process, they are also onto their third revision of the generation. Among the tweaks in the Xeon is an increase in germanium concentration. The most striking, though, is that Xeon appears to be the first ever device to use FUSI - or FUlly SIlicided - gates.
This is indeed a milestone of merit. I did not expect to see FUSI gates until 45nm, and not any widespread use until 32nm. In fact, there are people in the industry who don’t believe FUSI will work at all.
Although Intel is always the safe bet to employ new technology first, did Intel really mean to create a FUSI gate? Maybe Intel is trying to push the limits on the nickel-silicide process. The bottom line is that the FUSI on this generation of Intel seems to be a mere process variation.
The transistor performance measured did not indicate any problems on the devices we measured. But having a few devices with this much structural variation peppered through a chip as complicated as the Xeon just can?t be a good thing. For 65nm, Intel’s recipe is more like FUSILI.
Intel 65nm PFET gate virtually completely silicided by nickel
Atomic number contrast highlighting extent of nickel silicidation on Intel PFET.
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