Quote Originally Posted by savantu View Post
"Concerns about threshold voltage shifts and other performance problems with the gate-first approach to high-k/metal gate creation may cause GlobalFoundries (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and other members of the IBM-led Fishkill Alliance to shift to a gate-last technique, sources said at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), going on this week in Baltimore.

"My understanding is that the subsequent thermal steps are causing problems with the gate-first approach," said a senior vice president at Qualcomm Corp. (San Diego) who was attending IEDM. "GlobalFoundries seeks a gate-last approach, and if necessary they could drop in a gate-last module independent of IBM," the Qualcomm executive said.
http://www.semiconductor.net/article...igh_k-full.php

Translation : yeah, it might work at 32nm, but obviously yields are down the drain. Exactly what foundries want to hear.
It is one thing to show a few transistors or a small SRAM from R&D, it's a completely different thing to get a production process ready to roll. IBM utterly sucks at the later.
Same site, same topic, different result:
http://www.semiconductor.net/article...Generation.php

Seems, we have to wait and watch how the story unfolds.