Santa Clara: Intel has explained details of plans that will enable it to make the next leap in building microchips that are smaller, faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient.

Intel says it plans to move to large-volume manufacturing of microprocessors based on the so-called 90-nanometre circuitry technology by the second half of 2003, compared with 130 nanometres currently. A nanometer is one-billionth of a metre.

This move promises to thrust Intel into the lead in the high-volume manufacturing of the world’s smallest computer chips, which contain billions of circuits each, of which are one thousand times thinner than a human hair.

Intel is moving faster than many others in moving to the next technology, and is sticking to its strategy of making its own chips in the various chip-making plants it has around the globe.

The company’s push into 90-nanometre technology marks a bet by Intel that demand for powerful new circuits will recover within two years, rewarding it for continuing to invest aggressively in new technology during the recent slump.

The company says its new process can create transistors whose key features are just 50 nanometres apart, or 2,000 times narrower, than a human hair.

“By next year, we will be the first company to have a 90-nanometre process in volume manufacturing,” says Mark Bohr, Intel’s director of process architecture and integration.