IBM breakthrough: First 7-nanometre node test chips with functional transistors

In its latest breakthrough IBM has produced the first 7-nanometre node test chips with functional transistors.

The milestone, was achieved in association with Global Foundries, Samsung and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute's Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany, New York. It represents a $3-billion investment in chip technology research.

The company's technology advance comes as a significant leap ahead of current 22-nanometer chips, allowing for the potential production of more advance chips in the future, impacting everything from mobile devices to cloud computing.

At the 7-nanometre range (by way of comparison, a strand of human DNA measures only 2.5 nanometers in diameter), the traditional physics around silicon transistors called or a different approach.

The scaled down size was achieved with the use of Silicon Germanium (SiGe) channel transistors and Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography integration. IBM, said the breakthrough could deliver up to 50 per cent better power and performance for future systems supporting Big Data and mobile products.

The company last year, talked of possibly reaching the 7-nanometer scale (believed by some to be the limit of silicon chips) by the end of the decade.

This early demonstration of the technology, only a year later, offered hope that the company might also soon make strides toward its goals of possibly using silicon nanophotonics, graphene and carbon nanotubes as future chip materials.

According to commentators, the test chip had working components, called transistors, but it was a research and development project rather than a finished product that could be built into a computing device like a laptop, server or smartphone. It was still an important step extending Moore's Law and its promise of steady progress in the computer industry.

The processor progress projected by Moore's Law had led to computers shrinking from refrigerator-sized hulks to smartphones that fit one's pocket.

The advance work signalled that it would be possible to miniaturise chips further, helping to develop devices like powerful smartwatches or perhaps augmented-reality contact lenses.

"This is a welcome sign for the chip industry," said Envisioneering analyst Richard Doherty, CNET reported. "You can count on at least two more turns of Moore's Law benefits."

Moore's Law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who 50 years ago noticed the development that led to doubling of the number of transistors on a chip every two years, unlocking new computing power that made it economical to squeeze processors into ever-smaller devices.