IBM and Samsung to extend Moore’s Law with vertical transistors

Moore’s Law, enunciated in 1965, then corrected in 1975, postulates that the number of transistors in a microprocessor doubles every two years. For decades this law has stood out, but now it comes up against a serious obstacle: the size of atoms. With the next generation of processors engraved in 2 nanometers, the transistors have almost reached their minimum size.

However, the Moore’s law is not yet beaten. During the MEI, an international conference on semiconductors, IBM and Samsung announced that they had found a clever way to increase the density of transistors without reducing their size. Rather than engraving them horizontally, side by side, they will be placed quite simply vertically, like a forest. This technique has been called Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors (VTFET), or vertical transport field effect transistors.

Twice the speed of processors

This advance will reduce the space between the transistors as well as the losses electrostatic and parasitic. IBM and Samsung indicated that this would double the speed processors or reduce their power consumption by 85%.

According to the two firms, our smartphones could one day have a autonomy of a week and the electricity consumption of the cryptocurrency mining could be greatly reduced. However, the race for miniaturization is not over yet. For its part, Intel had announced this summer its roadmap with its “angstrom era” (1 angstrom corresponds to 0.1 nanometer). The manufacturer has announced its 20A (2 nm) process for 2024 and 18A (1.8 nm) for 2025.