Researchers produces 2.5 nm transistors

[djindy]

So, researchers at MIT and University of Colorado were abel to make 2.5 nm 3D transistors:

Engineers produce smallest 3-D transistor yet

They are claiming this can be done with processes ready for assembly lines, which is a big deal for whether we’ll ever see this in the market, but not a guarantee it will happen.

As I recall, some industry people mentioned some months ago it was possible but not still sketchy, they’d be able to figure out 3nm. 2.5nm is probably basically that, so this happening now certainly keeps alive hopes that in a few years we’ll see 3nm or similar after all (after 5nm, which isn’t confirmed yet either).

[MazeFrame]

The important paragraph is this one:

In this new work, the researchers modified thermal ALE to work on a semiconductor material, using the same reactor reserved for ALD. They used an alloyed semiconductor material, called indium gallium arsenide (or InGaAs), which is increasingly being lauded as a faster, more efficient alternative to silicon.

Gallium is a much “better” semi-conductor than Silicon in many aspects, except cost. Wich is why Silicon is the semi-conductor of choice for current electronics.

[FurryJackman]

This is still not going to even survive 5 minutes of cosmic ray bombardment, even with radiation hardening.

With Musk going to Mars and many other Space agencies going there, we should make chips more resistant to radiation, not smaller.

[MazeFrame]

With Musk going to Mars and many other Space agencies going there, we should make chips more resistant to radiation, not smaller.

Intel 8086 comes to mind. Russia made knock off versions for years after Intel stopped production because they have huge tracks.

[FurryJackman]

And that Chinese moon rover basically just used 28nm or 14nm parts without radiation hardening at all, and no wonder there were communication problems because the cosmic rays were causing the silicon to malfunction.