The World's First 2-nm Node Chip is Announced by IBM.

IBM has become the first in the world to introduce a 2-nanometer (nm) node chip. IBM claims this new chip will improve performance by 45 percent using the same amount of power, or use 75 percent less energy while maintaining the same performance level, as today's 7 nm-based chips. To give some sense of scale, with 2-nm technology, IBM could put 50 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail.

The foundation of the chip is nanosheet technology in which each transistor is made up of three stacked horizontal sheets of silicon, each only a few nanometers thick and completely surrounded by a gate. Nanosheet technology is poised to replace so-called FinFet technology named for the fin-like ridges of current-carrying silicon that project from the chip’s surface. The life expectancy of FinFet has been more or less set at the 7-nm node. If it were to go any smaller, transistors would become difficult to switch off: Electrons would leak out, even with the three-sided gates.

One can’t help but sense a bit of one-upmanship in IBM’s development after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) decided to stay with FinFETs for its next generation process, the 3-nanometer node. While IBM’s manufacturing partner, Samsung, does plan to use nanosheet technology for its 3-nm node chips, IBM outdid them both by using nanosheets and going down another step to a 2-nm node.

Leave a Comment