IBM has revealed their first 5nm chips

IBM has revealed their first 5nm chips

| Source: IBM Author: Mark Campbell

IBM has revealed their first 5nm chips

IBM has revealed their first 5nm chips, which was created in co-operation with Samsung and GlobalFoundries and makes use of new EUV technology and gate-all-around transistors.

These new chips are amongst the first silicon wafers to make use of Extreme Ultaviolet lithography technology, which has long been heralded as the technology that will bring process technologies to 7nm or below. Right now Samsung plans to debut this new technology on their upcoming 7nm process

Gate-All-Around Transistors, GAAFET, will similarly act as an evolution over existing FinFET Transistors, allowing the silicon gate to completely surround the transistors conducting channel and allows multiple channels to existing on a single transistor. This is a big improvement over FinFETs as it allows the gate to completely surround all of the conducting channels, whereas FinFets only surround the tops and sides of each channel.

The combination of these two technologies will allow denser circuits to be created with improved power consumption characteristics, which win turn will allow more powerful CPU and graphics technologies to be created. At this time the only thing that is in the way of more large scale adoption is the production viability of EUV technology, which currently produces silicon wafers at a slower pace than today's technology.

(A simple illustration of different transistor types)

These new technologies will allow manufacturers to extend the lifetime of Moore's law and silicon for a while longer and enable the production of denser circuits and increasingly efficient products. Let's just hope the EUV technology is able to evolve and create high enough levels of production for these new products to be affordable.

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