More Microchip Breakthroughs
Posted on January 27, 2007 Comments (2)
Intel, IBM separately reveal transistor breakthrough
Each company said it has devised a way to replace problematic but vital materials in the transistors of computer chips that have begun leaking too much electric current as the circuitry on those chips gets smaller. Technology experts said it’s the most dramatic overhaul of transistor technology for computer chips since the 1960s
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The problem is that the silicon dioxide used for more than 40 years as an insulator inside transistors has been shaved so thin that an increasing amount of current is seeping through, wasting electricity and generating unnecessary heat. Intel and IBM said they have discovered a way to replace that material with various metals in parts called the gate, which turns the transistor on and off, and the gate dielectric, an insulating layer, which helps improve transistor performance and retain more energy.
Related: Intel tips high-k, metal gates for 45-nm – Moore’s Law seen extended in chip breakthrough – 3 “Moore Generations” of Chips at Once – Delaying the Flow of Light on a Silicon Chip
2 Responses to “More Microchip Breakthroughs”
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August 18th, 2007 @ 6:18 pm
“the technology increased the ‘heat-transfer coefficient,’ which describes the cooling rate, by as much as 250 percent. ‘Other experimental cooling-enhancement approaches might give you a 40 percent or a 50 percent improvement…”
August 28th, 2009 @ 8:21 am
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