Capable of reducing energy consumption by 85%, why are the new chip designs of IBM and Samsung so good?

IBM and Samsung are making new strides in semiconductor design! According to the two companies, they have developed a new design to stack transistors vertically on the chip. In previous designs, transistors were laid flat on the surface of the semiconductor.

The new vertical transmission field effect transistor (VTFET) design is designed to replace the FinFET technology currently used in some of today's most advanced chips and enables more dense distribution of transistors on the chip. Such a layout would allow current to flow up and down in the transistor stack, whereas in most of the designs currently used on chips, current flows horizontally.

The vertical design of semiconductors has been around for a long time and has taken some inspiration from the finFET technology that is now common. It is reported that although its initial work focused on the stacking of chip components rather than optimizing the arrangement of transistors, Intel will mainly develop and design in this direction in the future. Of course, there is evidence for this: when planar space has become more difficult for transistors to stack, the only real direction (other than the physical reduction of transistor technology) is upwards.

While we're still a long way from actual consumer chips using VTFET designs, Intel and Samsung are making a strong start. They note that VTFET chips can "triple performance or reduce energy use by 85 percent."

IBM and Samsung have also ambitiously come up with some bold ideas, such as "charging a phone once for a week." This could drastically reduce energy consumption in energy-intensive industries, such as data encryption, and the technology could even empower more powerful IoT devices and even spacecraft.

IBM previously showcased its first 2nm chip earlier this year. The chip uses a different approach to filling more transistors than before by using existing FinFET designs to expand the number of chips that can be mounted on the chip. VTFET technology, however, goes a step further, although it's been a long time since we see chips using the technology available.

However, IBM is not the only company looking to the future of production. Intel unveiled its upcoming RibbonFET (Intel's first full-ring gate transistor) design this summer, a patent it has been granted on FinFET technology. This technology will be part of Intel's 20A generation semiconductor products, while generation 20A chips are scheduled to begin mass production in 2024. Recently, IBM also announced its own stacked transistor technology program as a future next-generation product for RibbonFETs.

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