Intel China president and chairman Wang Rui said the company had finalised the development of its Intel 18A (18 angstroms-class) and Intel 20A (20 angstroms-class) fabrication processes. This does not mean that the production nodes are ready to be used for commercial manufacturing, but that Chipzilla Intel has determined both specifications, materials, requirements, and performance targets.

Intel's 20A fabrication technology will rely on gate-all-around RibbonFET transistors and will use backside power delivery. If it works, 20A will allow Intel to leapfrog the company's competitors — TSMC and Samsung Foundry. Intel plans to start using this node in the first half of 2024.

Intel's 18A manufacturing process will further refine the company's RibbonFET and PowerVia technologies, and shrink transistor sizes. Development of this node is apparently going so well that Intel pulled in its introduction from 2025 to the second half of 2024. Intel originally planned to use ASML's Twinscan EXE scanners with a 0.55 numerical aperture (NA) optics for its 1.8 angstroms node, but now it thinks it can use its existing Twinscan NXE scanners with 0.33 NA optics, as well as EUV double patterning.

Intel CEO Pat [kicking] Gelsinger said: "We continue to make progress on Intel 18A, and have already shared the engineering release of PDK 0.5 (process design kit) with our lead customers and expect to have the final production release in the next few weeks."