And also, there is packaging, which has been popular and important.” “In addition to the technology from the transistor side, there is already new architectures that are involved, such as new power deliver systems. “(We have) new transistor architectures,” said Chung-Hsun Lin, senior director and principal engineer at Intel, during a presentation at the recent IEDM conference. Realistically, the industry can only afford to back one transistor candidate. As a result, most will never move from lab to fab. While these novel structures can deliver amazing electrical properties, they are difficult to fabricate. So far, there is little consensus beyond 2nm. The industry is planning ahead by evaluating several futuristic transistor types beyond 2nm, including 2D devices, carbon nanotube FETs, CFETs, forksheet FETs and vertical-transport FETs. Source: Lam ResearchĮngineers know that even today’s GAA designs eventually will run into performance limitations. GAA FETs provides greater performance at lower power than finFETs, but they are more expensive to design and fabricate.įig. The chip industry is beginning to refer to nodes beyond 2nm as the Angstrom nodes.)Īt 2nm and/or 3nm, leading-edge foundries and their customers eventually will migrate to a GAA transistor type called the nanosheet FET. A process technology is the recipe used to manufacture a chip in a fab. (A node refers to a technology generation’s performance specifications, process technology and design rules. However, finFETs will soon approach its limits, prompting the need for a new technology at the 3nm and/or 2nm process nodes. Since 2011, vendors have been shipping chips based on one advanced transistor type- finFETs. This formula, called chip scaling, works as long as the industry can develop new and faster transistors that consume the same or lower power at roughly the same cost per chip. Transistors, a key building block in chips, act like switches in devices. Traditionally, to advance a new chip, IC vendors develop a system-on-a-chip (SoC) and then cram more transistors on the device at each generation. Near-term, though, the industry has a clear migration path to the highest performing chips. It will take vast resources and innovations to develop even one candidate to successfully extend CMOS FETs for another decade. Barring major delays, today’s GAA structures should perform and extend for three technology nodes of products before they run out of steam, according to various roadmaps.īeyond that, the industry is evaluating several transistor candidates, but each has technical gaps. The semiconductor industry is making its first major change in a new transistor type in more than a decade, moving toward a next-generation structure called gate-all-around (GAA) FETs.Īlthough GAA transistors have yet to ship, many industry experts are wondering how long this technology will deliver - and what new architecture will take over from there.
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