IBM constructs chips with 7 nm wide transistors, the smallest components ever made

Pushing the boundary of silicon chip manufacturing toward its atomic limit, IBM has successfully created chips with the smallest chip-ready transistors to date. At 7 nanometers in width, the components are a little less than three times the size of a single strand of DNA.

To put things into perspective, the current standard in transistor miniaturization has reached 14 nm in scale, although some chip-makers are updating their fabrication systems to produce components as small as 10 nm. IBM’s 7 nm transistors far exceed these numbers, demonstrating that Moore’s Law is still in effect. 

Put forth by Gordon Moore in 1965, Moore’s Law suggests that the number of transistors shrink and double every two years, simultaneously increasing computational power by a similar threshold. But as transistor size approaches 1 nm in width, chip manufacturers fear the rate of change will drastically decelerate because transistors cannot function at the atomic scale. IBM’s breakthrough ensures silicon chips will continuously improve until at least 2018, when they hopefully be replaced with quantum-based components.

Speaking with the NY Times, IBM explained that it achieved its benchmark performance by incorporating silicon-germanium into the manufacturing process in place of pure silicon. Similarly, very narrow wavelengths of ultraviolet light was used to etch components and stack transistors as close to one another as possible.

Determining how to fabricate the transistors is one thing, But being able to is an entirely different beast. “Dozens of design and tooling improvements,” were necessary before the fabrication process could commence, and even then, IBM is still working on ways to upscale production for actual manufacturing plants. Already, companies such as Broadcom, Qualcomm, and AMD have already signed up to procure the chips for their products.

IBM, along with its partners, are planning to spend $3 billion to construct a fabrication plant in upstate New York to produce the transistors.

Source: BBC