Nanotechnology in Electronics
The term nanoelectronics refers to the use of nanotechnology in electronic components. These components are often only a few nanometers in size. However, the tinier electronic components become, the harder they are to manufacture.
CPUs are made from billions of small transistors, electrical gates that switch on and off to perform calculations. They take power to do this, and also the smaller the transistor uses the less power is required.
Importance of new process
Moore’s law states that the quantity of transistors on a chip doubles per annum. Back within the late 90s and early 2000s, transistors were decreased in size by half every two years, resulting in massive improvements. Shrinking has gotten more complicated, and that we haven’t seen a transistor shrink from Intel since 2014.
With Intel lagging, even mobile devices have had an opportunity to catch up, with apple’s A12 bionic being manufactured on TSMC’s 7nm process, and Samsung has its own 10nm process
Photolithography in CPUs
CPUs are made using Photolithography, where an image of the CPU is etched onto a piece of silicon. The precise method of photolithography done is usually stated as the process node and is measured by how small the manufacturer can make the transistors. IBM able to achieve the greater performance of the CPU by using small transistors as they have less power consumption than the prevailing transistor without getting hot. It also allows for smaller die sizes, reducing costs and increasing density at the identical sizes, which implies more cores per chip.
Transistor Density
Today’s announcement states that IBM’s 2nm development will improve performance by 45% at the same power, or 75% energy at the same performance, compared to modern 7nm processors.
IBM is keen to point out that it was the first research institution to demonstrate 7nm in 2015 and 5nm in 2017, the latter of which upgraded from Finest to nanosheet technologies that allow for a greater customization of the voltage characteristics of individual transistors.
VIDEO ON NANO-TECHNOLOGY USED IN ELECTRONICS BY IBM .
ARTICLE LINK :-
https://www.zdnet.com/article/comparing-apples-m1-to-ibms-2nm-chip-apples-and-oranges/
https://technosports.co.in/2021/05/20/tsmc-mit-and-ntu-announce-1nm-chip-breakthrough-weeks-after-ibms-2nm-success/
What is 7nm?
- 7nm refers to a technology node that’s one of the most advanced FinFET process nodes utilized in chip design & fabrication
- 7nm is one of the most recent process nodes in production today that has shrink-down transistors, offering improvement in silicon area utilization and power efficiency, which goes on into production mode for the last couple of months.
- The tradeoff is an increase in chip design & manufacturing process complexity, together with higher manufacturing/fabrication costs.
Benefits of 7nm process
- The main benefits are PPA i.e., power, performance, and area, which is the main criteria of the Mobile, handheld device, and processor industry.
- Reduced power consumption -This is a key parameter for the mobile/handheld industry, for which power consumption & battery life plays a major role. Per published data, the 7nm TSMC process gives 40% power saving over 10nm.
- Improvement in switching performance — This is equally important in server applications and smartphones, which use faster processors and want to add more threads to their multi-tasking capabilities. Faster switching means faster application run time. Per the info published by TSMC, this shows a 20% speed improvement.
- 1.6x higher density — This is a key advantage to provide the lightest and thinnest possible smartphones. Per published data, TSMC 7nm has resulted in area saving due to 1.6X logic density vis-à-vis 10nm.
Conclusion
However, nanotechnology — as with all new emerging technologies — is bringing up just as many problems as solutions. How can regulation and testing keep up with technology, and what impact might these new nanomaterials have on human health or the wider environment? These are issues that still need to be addressed. As greater investments continue to be made in nanotechnology and ever more nanoparticles find their way into our environment, products, and even bodies, it is vitally important that the potential benefits of this technology are carefully weighed and considered against the unknown risks.
References :-
https://medium.com/pragyan-blog/nanomedicine-a-brave-new-world-a14d7fb3388a
https://hbhutada95.medium.com/7nm-processor-64646ecfa745
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/nanotechnology/
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/463423/Nanotechnology-development-in-Iranian-agricultural-sector
Author :-
Hrushikesh Sohoni
Hitesh Kumar
Pradnya Kamble
Dhiraj mhaprolkar
Anurag sabale
from : Vishwakarma institute of Technology
