Intel 22 nm 3D Tri-Gate Transistor : Implementation And Application

Seems like the Intel has decided to come up with something new in the chip manufacturing technology each and every day. While the news of the new versions of Atom and core i7 processors has not even got off from the charts, company has come up with another news. As far as the chip manufacturing technology is concerned, I think this is quite of a news. Intel has announced that the upcoming processor chips will be based on the 3D transistors (yes you read it right, 3D transistors).

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All of us are aware of the usual transistors having a base, collector and an emitter terminal. Now what is special about this tri-gate or 3D transistor? Why was it manufactured and what was the need in the first place? Let us try to find out something about it.

Structure:


The structure of a 3D transistor differs from that of a usual transistor. In this transistor the planar or flat gate is replaced with a three-dimensional gate. The structure is such that a thin fin rises vertically upwards from the silicon substrate. The image shows the fin rising upwards. The gate is constructed so as to cover the fin from three sides viz. the right, left and the top. Now this is contrary to the 2D transistor where the gate covers the base from one side only. The reason behind this is to enable more flow of current while in the ‘on’ stage and also to switch off the transistor more quickly. All this is done to improve the transition time between the ‘on’ and ‘off’ stages of the transistor.

Implementation:

The decreasing size of chips day by day is forcing the designers to cram more transistor in the same or rather a smaller space. The existing technology of 2D transistors can not sustain this any far now. Thus the 3D transistors are introduced which enable reduction in space also. They are planned to be implemented in the new processors using the Ivy Bridge technology. The current processors by Intel are based on the Sandy Bridge technology but the future is the new Ivy Bridge technology. The Ivy Bridge uses the 22-nanometer technology while the sandy bridge uses 32-nanometer technology.  Commercial production in Ivy Bridge based processors will start in the next year.



Need:

The main and the sole reason behind the new technology is the improvement in performance, performance meaning speed and power consumption. The hurdle in the path is the energy efficiency and not speeds. The new 3D transistors will make the processor chips operate with much lower leakage and low voltage levels. All this points to improvement in the energy efficiency of the chips.

Application:

Almost all the smartphones and tablets today use the ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) chips as they provide enhanced power efficiency. Intel claims that 3D transistors consume less than half of the power than the 2D transistors when delivering the same performance. So the main applications will consist of smartphones and similar devices as the 22-nanometer technology claims 37% reduction in energy consumption compared to 32-nanometer technology.

Thus expect phones which are smaller, faster and have a longer battery life to be in your hand soon. The price considerations are however in the dark as yet.

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