Intel, at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) 2022, shared advances in chip design and manufacturing needed to “keep Moore’s Law on the path to a trillion-transistor chip in the next decade.” In particular, Intel spoke about the development of new 3D packaging, innovative materials to increase the density of transistors, and fresh solutions to improve energy efficiency and memory in high-performance computing.
“75 years after the invention of the transistor, innovations at the heart of Moore’s Law continue to meet the exponentially growing global demand for computers. At IEDM 2022, Intel is showcasing both the forward-thinking and concrete research advances needed to overcome current and future barriers, meet insatiable demand, and keep Moore’s Law in place for years to come,” said Gary Patton, Vice President of Intel and General Manager of Component Research and Design.
At IEDM 2022, the Intel Components Research Group demonstrated its commitment to innovation in three key areas to comply with Moore’s Law. Researchers at the Intel Components Research Group have found new materials and technologies that “blur the line between package and die,” allowing the company to combine a trillion transistors on a single substrate.
Firstly, it is extremely difficult to make one chip with a trillion transistors, so it would be much more practical to combine several chips (chiplets) on a substrate, but this requires innovative packaging technologies. As noted in the press release, Intel is ready to offer 3D chip packaging technology with a “10x increase in density” compared to the solutions that the company presented at IEDM 2021.
The company also noted that scaling the hybrid package to 3 microns “will provide the same density and throughput as in monolithic chips like single-chip platforms.” In other words, Intel will try to ensure that there is no difference between a monolithic chip and a stack of multiple chips.
Second, Intel is looking for ultra-thin “two-dimensional” materials to fit more transistors on a single chip. Intel has demonstrated a multi-layer structure of nanosheets with surrounding gate transistors (GAA), which are made of a “two-dimensional” material only 3 atoms thick. Intel has also shown near-perfect switching of transistors on a dual-gate structure at room temperature with low leakage current. These are the two key breakthroughs needed to unify GAA transistors and overcome the fundamental limitations of silicon chips.
The researchers also presented the first comprehensive analysis of electrical contact topologies for 2D materials, which will help pave the way for high performance and scalable transistor circuits.
Third, Intel is offering new opportunities to improve energy efficiency and improve memory in the HPC space. To make better use of chip space, Intel is rethinking scaling by designing memory that can be stacked vertically above transistors – somewhat reminiscent of AMD 3D V-Cache, but Intel’s technology has a striking cast, as it offers multi-layering within a single die. Intel noted that it has demonstrated for the first time in the industry multilayer ferroelectric capacitors that match the performance of conventional ferroelectric capacitors and can be used to build FeRAM over a logic die.
Intel also showed “the industry’s first device-level model that captures mixed phases and defects for improved hafnium-based ferroelectric devices,” and this indicates “Intel’s significant progress in supporting industry tools for the development of new memory devices and ferroelectric transistors.”
Intel also said that it is paving the way for mass production of power electronics based on GaN transistors based on 300 mm wafers (GaN-on-silicon). It is reported that this “will provide a 20-fold gain over existing GaN technologies and sets an industry quality record for high-performance power delivery.”
Intel also boasted breakthroughs in the field of super-energy efficient technologies. In particular, the company said that it has created transistors that “forget nothing, retaining data even when the power is turned off.” “Intel researchers have already overcome two of the three barriers preventing the technology from becoming fully viable and usable at room temperature,” the press release says.
Finally, that is, fourthly, Intel noted that it continues to introduce new concepts, offering the best qubits for quantum computing. Intel researchers are working to find the best ways to store quantum information by collecting various data on how the environment affects quantum data stored in one way or another.
If you notice an error, select it with the mouse and press CTRL + ENTER.
