Now that the collaboration with the "3rd party foundry" is settled, are there any educated guesses, how long it could take to achieve the 40 nm target in the fab?
Given that the necessary processes already have been developed in the course of the 100 nm target, they "only" have to be applied with 40 nm in mind. Since there are no (extraordinary) surprises expected on the way down, I'd guess it won't take as long as to the end of this year (ca. 3 months). The PDK is expected by the end of Q4, but the first 40 nm PET chip might come earlier. The NR emphasizes that both developments are done in parallel, so they won't wait in the fab for the PDK to become available.
What do you experts think, who are closer to the technology than me?
