Forget 5nm, TSMC already has its eyes on 2nm chips

The size reduction of computer transistors has been going on since the day they were invented. Thanks to the amazing engineering and theoretical work of thousands of people, we’re all holding in our hands devices that would seem like science fiction just a few decades ago.

But semiconductor manufacturers are never satisfied and keep breaking down barriers to bring us even smaller and more powerful chips. At the nanometer scale we’re at now, things are getting very complicated. Production methods that worked before can be used no longer and new ones have to be developed.

That’s exactly what TSMC is doing right now, as reported by DigiTimes. According to TSMC's latest annual report, the company has begun its research and development efforts towards the 2nm process in 2019, and preliminary studies regarding nodes even smaller than that are underway as well.

If you haven’t been following the developments on the nanometer front, currently, the best smartphone chips are built using the 7nm process. The first ones using the 5nm process are expected later this year (likely Apple’s A14 chip for the new iPhones). After that will come the 3nm one, targeted for 2022-2023, and hopefully, around 2025, we’ll see the first 2nm chips on the market.

In nanometers, the difference is small, but we should look at what it means for transistor density. A 7nm chip can fit 2 times more transistors on the same die as a 14nm one, but a 2nm one will be able to fit 3.5 times more than a 7nm one!

Chips that powerful and that energy-efficient will open up a whole new set of functions our phones will be able to perform. And while that future is still a few years away, it’s steadily coming and it’s exciting!

Scientists develop photon-based silicon circuitry that could make Moore's Law obsolete

Scientist managed to change the cubic silicon structure into a hexagonal nanowire structure. (Image Source: Wired)

By changing the cubic silicon structure to a hexagonal nanowire structure, scientists managed to develop photon-based silicon alloy circuitry that may replace electron-based transistors. The photon-based material prevents electron traffic jams, overheating and transmission slowdowns caused by cramming too many transistors.

by Bogdan Solca, 2020/04/15

Intel co-founder Gordon Moore was estimating that CPU transistor counts could double every two years, and so far this proved to be more or less accurate. The problem now is that we are approaching the physical limits of silicon transistors, which cannot really be shrunk down to less than 1 nanometer, so scientists are looking into new materials that can help overcome such restrictions. One of the latest inventions in this field comes from the Netherlands in the form of light-emitting silicon circuitry that could help reduce the number of needed transistors while still improving the performance.

A group of Eindhoven University of Technology scientists led by Erik Bakkers managed to develop silicon alloy nanowires that can emit light. These new materials can potentially be used to build photon-based circuits that, in turn, may replace the electron-based cubic transistor models used in commercial chips nowadays.

The photon-based hexagonal nanowires should greatly improve the computational performance as data transmitted through photons instead of electrons can prevent electron traffic jams, overheating and transmission slowdowns caused by cramming too many transistors in a determined area. Photons move considerably faster than electrons, so they can transmit data more efficiently over multiple channels. With the introduction of photonic circuits, data-intensive applications like machine learning and big data crunching could see tremendous boosts.

Researchers are currently trying to figure out a way to implement a tiny laser to act as the light source within the new materials. It is yet unclear how long it will take for this technology to become a reality. Intel is planning to reach the 1 nm transistor size limit by the end of this decade and TSMC may do it even faster, so scientists ought to come with a decent solution by 2025.

The machine used to fabricate the new hexagonal silicon alloy nanowires (Image Source: Wired)

#BEYOU, the world will adjust 🙂