What Is the Intel 14A PDK 0.9 and Why It Matters

Silicon process technologies provide a range of transistors, interconnects and specialized features that chip designers leverage to build their products. For a foundry customer to use these features, they need a way to incorporate them into their designs.

This is where the process design kit (PDK) comes in. A PDK serves as the interface between the process technology and the design tools engineers use to turn their ideas into silicon. If you think of a chip as a microscopic but vast city, a PDK is the digital building codes, approved building materials, and helpful resources that allow a designer to create a successful product.

Intel Foundry recently announced the general availability of the PDK 0.9 for the Intel 14A process node, an important milestone that allows customers to use the technology in an environment closer to full scale production. We asked Ben Sell, who leads Intel 14A and advanced nodes development, and Ali Farhang, who oversees PDKs and design enablement, to talk about the importance of this release, PDKs in general, and what's next for the Intel 14A node.

Let's start with the basics. What exactly is a PDK, and why is it important when you develop a new process technology?

Ali: A Process Design Kit, or PDK, is essentially the ultimate reference guide for a chip designer to create a product on a specific manufacturing process. It brings together the models, design rules, and other supporting materials that electronic design automation (EDA) tools use to help a customer bring their product from concept to mass production.

Just as importantly, the PDK release lifecycle serves as the clock that orchestrates technology development. Each revision represents a milestone of technology maturity, synchronizing our internal research and development, EDA and IP ecosystem partners, and customer design teams on a single, shared schedule.

Can you tell us what it means for Intel Foundry to announce general availability of the Intel 14A PDK 0.9?

Ben: From a customer perspective, the PDK 0.9 gives customers the confidence to design products on Intel 14A, as the technology is reaching the industry-standard performance and yield maturity expected at this stage of development, supported by silicon-backed validation.

Process technologies take time to mature for production, but customers want early access to begin design evaluation to enable time-to-market. With PDK 0.9, customers can create designs that go into the fab for production around the time a process node is certified. As we approach PDK 1.0, it says that we are confident that this process technology is on track for high volume manufacturing.

Ali: In the foundry business, trust is paramount. For fabless customers, selecting a foundry is one of the most consequential decisions they make. If a foundry does not deliver, the impact on a customer's business can be profound. The general availability of Intel 14A PDK 0.9 is a critical milestone demonstrating that Intel Foundry can execute on its commitments.

How are things going so far with Intel 14A, and how does that translate into your confidence in the PDK releases?

Ben: We are pleased with the pace of progress on Intel 14A and encouraged by the feedback we are receiving from customers. That progress reflects both a strong technology foundation and the growing maturity of how we develop and deliver a foundry process.

Intel 14A builds on proven backside power delivery architecture with PowerDirect and gate-all-around transistor technology with RibbonFET 2, and with Turbo Cells added to give designers greater flexibility on optimizing performance and efficiency depending on their needs. The node incorporates extensive learning and manufacturing knowledge from Intel 18A, increased investment in inline detection, modeling and simulation to identify issues earlier, and several strategic initiatives to accelerate the pace of development.

Together, these capabilities are helping us improve Intel 14A performance, yield, variability and cycle time while staying aligned to our committed schedule that customers depend on to build their products.

That execution discipline is what gives us confidence in the PDK releases. Each release is grounded in silicon, so customers receive a progressively more accurate and complete representation of the technology. The PDK 0.9 is an important proof point that many customers use as a gate to start a design.

How is Intel Foundry working with the ecosystem around Intel 14A development?

Ali: Intel is partnering closely with leading EDA providers, including Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens, and Keysight, along with a broad ecosystem of IP partners, to deliver a comprehensive design platform for our foundry customers.

Earlier this year, Cadence, Keysight, Siemens and Synopsys announced design-tool certifications; in addition, Cadence and Intel launched a DTCO (Design Technology Co-Optimization) collaboration focused on optimizing Intel 14A for next-generation AI-driven design tools and IP.

As we advance toward future PDK releases, we continue to deepen engagement with ecosystem partners to validate and optimize design tools, IP, and flows, ensuring readiness at every stage of technology development. This ongoing collaboration provides customers with a predictable path to adoption, supported by a trusted ecosystem of certified solutions that accelerates design productivity and time-to-market.

Ben: From a technology development perspective, we are bringing in the broader ecosystem to help us achieve our results. This has required evolving our collaboration model with equipment and material suppliers, and earlier engagement from our process experts with suppliers to drive improvements in process and equipment capabilities. We hold regular executive summits and engineering review meetings to accelerate progress against critical deliverables.

What are you looking forward to next?

Ben: I am excited to translate the progress we are making on Intel 14A to customer success. Our immediate focus is to continue to improve performance, yield, variability and cycle time as we move toward the PDK 1.0 and volume production ready milestones. I am also looking forward to seeing customer designs advancing on Intel technologies and giving them the confidence they need to build their products with Intel Foundry as a trusted partner.

Ali: I'm looking forward to sustaining this level of quality across future releases and continuing to earn our customers' trust by delivering on our commitments with a customer-first mindset. Our next major milestone is the Intel 14A PDK 1.0, expected in the first quarter of 2027.

I'm equally excited about the roadmap of node enhancements and performance scaling steps that will follow as Intel 14A matures. Our goal is to provide a highly stable, continuously optimized platform so our customers have the long-term capabilities they need to create differentiated, successful products for the AI era.

Meet The Experts

Ben Sell is a corporate vice president and general manager leading the front-end technology development for Intel Foundry.Ben joined Intel in 2002 and has been involved in the development of multiple advanced process nodes dating back to 65nm including 32nm, 22nm, 14nm, Intel 4 and Intel 18A. He started his career at Infineon Technologies working in DRAM capacitor pathfinding.

Ali Farhang is Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Foundry Design Technology Platform (DTP) organization at Intel Foundry. With over 35 years of semiconductor leadership, Ali oversees the co-optimization of technology and design (DTCO), PDK development, foundational IP, reference flows, and strategic ecosystem enablement. He spent 25 years at Intel in lead product and technology enablement leadership roles before rejoining the company in 2025, following executive tenures as Corporate VP of Central Engineering at Micron and in the IP startup ecosystem.