Intel and UMC on Thursday said they had entered into an agreement to jointly to develop a 12 nm photolithography process for high-growth markets such as mobile, communication infrastructure, and networking. Under the terms of the deal, the two companies will co-design a 12 nm-class foundry node that Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will use at its fabs in Arizona to produce a variety of chips.
The new 12 nm manufacturing process will be developed in Arizona and used in Fabs 12, 22, and 32 at Intel's Ocotillo Technology Fabrication site in Arizona. The two companies will jointly work on the fabrication technology itself, process design kit (PDK), electronic design automation (EDA) tools, and intellectual properties (IP) solutions from ecosystem partners to enable quick deployment of the node by customers once the tech is production ready in 2027.
