IBM's labs have produced a chip with double-gate transistors, a significant milestone in the raging semiconductor space race.
Scientists at the company revealed that they have manufactured a working static RAM chip out of so-called Fin-Fet transistors, which feature two gates, rather than a single one, for conducting electricity. To date, IBM has said little publicly about double-gate transistors. At a technical conference in December, the company will provide details about the memory chip and also talk about other research on transistors.
"The problem with double gates is figuring out how to manufacture them," said Jeff Welser, a senior chip design manager at IBM Microelectronics. "We certainly don't have Fin-Fets on our product roadmaps yet, but this makes it more real...This shows more and more that these are useful structures."
Later this week, rival Intel will discuss its plans for multigate transistors at its developer conference in the US.
Double-gate transistors like the Fin-Fet have emerged as one of the technologies that could help engineers ward off technical limitations over the course of the next decade and make faster, more powerful chips.
Gates essentially function as conduits for electricity inside transistors, the building blocks of chips. By doubling the number of gates, engineers can pump more electricity through a transistor and thereby increase chip performance.
"You probably get a 50 percent performance improvement instead of the full factor of two," Welser said.
Even more important, using two gates allows engineers to cut down on leakage, or the unintentional dissipation of electricity, because the average amount of electricity flowing through each gate can be lowered. Leakage wasn't a significant problem a few years ago, but it has become acute now that transistor gates and other chip components measure only a few atoms thick.
In chips produced with the 90-nanometre process, approximately half of the electricity will be lost through leakage, Welser said. Such chips are expected to come out next year.
In a notebook, that means terrible battery life. In a server, it means higher power bills. Not only does the server require more energy, but also ambient cooling systems have to be beefed up because of the excess heat created by the excess electrical flow.
Welser likens the way these transistors lower leakage to stopping the flow of water through a garden hose. If you press down with one hand, the water flow can be stopped, but with difficulty. "But if you grip it on both sides, it is easier," he said.
In December, IBM will also publish technical papers on adding metallic layers to Fin-Fet transistors and other, related subjects.
