Intel Brings High-Volume EUV to Europe: Fab 34 Starts Producing Intel 4 Node

Intel will formally start high volume manufacturing (HVM) of chips using its Intel 4 process technology at its Fab 34 near Leixlip, Ireland, on Friday, September 29, 2023. This will mark the first time extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is used for European mass production.

Intel's Fab 34 in Ireland will be the company's second semiconductor production facility equipped to make chips on the Intel 4 fabrication process after the company's D1 fab near Hillsboro, Oregon. The company used its Copy Exactly! procedure to bring the EUV-enabled process node from the U.S. to Ireland and usage of this approach ensures that all methods of continuous process improvements (CPI) to increase yields and reduce performance variations through the means of statistical process control (SPC) introduced in the U.S. or elsewhere could be implemented at Fab 34.

The Intel 4 manufacturing technology reportedly offers 21.5% higher frequencies at the same power, or a 40% power reduction at the same frequency compared to Intel 7 (10nm Enhanced SuperFin). Perhaps more importantly, the new fabrication process promises two times higher transistor density with high-performance libraries than its predecessor, an achievement enabled by EUV and the 2nd generation contact over active gate (COAG).

The Intel 4 fabrication technology (formerly known as 7nm) is currently used to make compute tiles for the company's codenamed Meteor Lake processors in client PCs. Producing these chiplets at two fabs will ensure that Intel can launch these CPUs in high volume.

The live stream of the Fab 34 opening ceremony will be broadcast on the Intel Newsroom on Friday, September 29, 2023, at 12:45 p.m. Irish Standard Time (4:45 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time). 

The ceremony will be attended by Pat Gelsinger, chief executive of Intel; Dr. Ann Kelleher, general manager of Technology Development at Intel; and Keyvan Esfarjani, chief global operations officer at the company.