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| Samsung hopes to add a week to phone battery life |
Samsung and IBM announced the latest developments in semiconductor design and introduced a new method for stacking transistors vertically on the chip (instead of on the surface of the semiconductor).
The new VTFET design is set to replace the existing FinFET technology used by some of today's more advanced chips, and allows today's high-density transistors to fill the chip.
A newly developed vertical transistor stack allows current to move up and down the transistor stack, rather than the horizontal and lateral layout currently used in most chips.
Vertical semiconductor design has been a trend for some time (FinFET offers some of these advantages). Intel's future roadmap should also evolve in this direction. Although his initial work focused on stacking chip components rather than individual transistors.
When you run out of money to add more chips to an airplane, the only real trend (apart from the physical shrinkage of transistor technology) is the rise.
Although we are far from using VTFET designs in true consumer chips, both companies had high demands.
Both companies report that VTFET chips can double the performance or reduce power consumption by 85% compared to FinFET designs.
By adding more transistors to the chip, both Samsung and IBM claim that VTFET technology can help comply with Moore's Law of steadily increasing the number of transistors.
Samsung and IBM developed a new proprietary chip
Samsung and IBM have also identified ambitious potential use cases for the new technologies. Both companies are excited about the idea that cell phone batteries can be used for more than a week instead of days without charging. Mining energy-efficient cryptocurrencies or encrypted data, more powerful IoT devices and even spaceships.
IBM introduced the first 2-nm chip at the beginning of the year. This chip uses a different method to put more transistors in place. The current FinFET design is used to increase the number of elements that can be placed on the chip.
VTFET wants to go further. However, chips based on new technologies may take longer to become available.
Samsung and IBM aren't the only companies eagerly awaiting future production. Intel tested the upcoming RibbonFET design this summer. and a successor to its FinFET manufacturing technology, which will be part of Intel's Generation 20A semiconductor products.
The company also recently announced its plan for stacked transistor technology as a possible future successor to RibbonFET.