IBM and Samsung Electronics reported a breakthrough in semiconductor design using a new vertical transistor architecture (VTFET) that shows a route to scaling beyond nanosheet and has the potential to lower energy consumption by 85 percent when compared to a scaled fin field-effect transistor (finFET).
The global semiconductor shortage has brought attention to the importance of chip research and development, as well as the relevance of chips in everything from computing to appliances, communication devices, transportation systems, and vital infrastructure.
According to the partners, the new vertical transistor discovery could aid the semiconductor industry’s constant pursuit of major advances, such as:
Potential device architecture for semiconductor device scalability beyond nanosheet.
Instead of days, cell phone batteries that might last a week without being charged.
Processes that use a lot of energy, like cryptomining and data encryption, might use a lot less energy and have a smaller carbon footprint.
