Intel Foundry Secures 'Ericsson' as Client... Announces 5G Chip Production

5G SoC Production Using 1.8-Nanometer-Class Process

Intel, which is focusing on its foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) business, is adding a customer in the telecommunications sector. It plans to produce communication chips for Ericsson, a Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer, using the 1.8-nanometer (nm; one billionth of a meter) process in the future.

Intel announced on the 27th that it has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ericsson on this matter. The company explained, "We will introduce the technology needed for Ericsson's next-generation 5th generation mobile communication (5G) infrastructure by utilizing the 18A process and manufacturing technology," and "We will produce customized 5G system-on-chip (SoC) products for 5G infrastructure."

18A refers to the 1.8 nm class. Intel uses the unit angstrom (?; 1? = 0.1 nm) instead of nanometers for foundry processes below the 2 nm class. Although Intel did not specify the production timing for Ericsson's products, since it has announced the introduction of the 18A process in 2025, the manufacturing time for the products is likely to be after that.

Sachin Katti, Senior Vice President of Intel's Network and Edge (NEX) division, said, "This agreement is an example that demonstrates the shared vision of both companies to innovate and transform network connectivity," adding, "It will serve as an opportunity to strengthen customer trust in Intel's process and manufacturing technology."

Since declaring its re-entry into the foundry market in 2021, Intel has been growing its related business by securing fabless semiconductor design customers such as MediaTek. While the top two foundry companies, Taiwan's TSMC and Samsung Electronics, have announced plans to introduce 2 nm processes in 2025, Intel aims to introduce the 20A process, which is ahead of them, next year.

Starting from 20A, Intel will newly introduce the gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology called 'RibbonFET' and the 'PowerVia' technology that improves chip performance by changing the power wiring location. Intel plans to enhance related technological capabilities in the 20A process to improve the completeness of the 18A process.

Meanwhile, in the collaboration with Ericsson, Intel will optimize its 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors equipped with its vRAN Boost for Ericsson's cloud radio access network (RAN) solutions. This will help telecommunications service providers increase network capacity and energy efficiency while achieving greater scalability.