The semiconductor industry is experiencing tremendous advances in digital, analog, tooling, manufacturing techniques and materials. Chip development requires highly sophisticated and complex processes at all levels, from design to production. Advancing this process requires significant changes from architectural design to sustainable materials and end-to-end manufacturing to meet the growing demand for semiconductors. To achieve this, the industry is embracing the latest technologies to increase the efficiency and throughput of highly advanced process nodes.

Semiconductors, the backbone of IoT and digital transformation

We are witnessing significant advances in the Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices, and most recently, 5G. To understand where these innovations will lead us and what we should expect from them, we need a basic understanding of the underlying technologies that make this new wave of innovation possible. With the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G powered by semiconductor technology, the evolution of AI will be faster than ever. For the past 30 years, advances in semiconductor technology have been the driving force behind the growth of computing power. Semiconductors are said to account for about 50 percent of the cost of computing hardware. Based on semiconductor technology, the integration of AI computing devices into society will become more seamless and pervasive. One example is self-driving cars, which use ubiquitous mobile edge computing and sophisticated algorithms to process and analyze driving data. Based on 5G communications infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning use computer vision to understand the surrounding scene and then plan and execute safe driving maneuvers. This makes driving safer, smarter and more efficient. IoT devices can turn almost any product into a smart device, from water systems to clothing. Retail, healthcare, life sciences, consumer goods, and industrial IoT are all in high demand.

Future innovations will also make personalized chips more readily available, more efficiently produced and, most importantly, more sustainable. The Internet of Things (IoT) is important to the semiconductor industry as connected devices become more prevalent. As the smartphone industry stagnates, the semiconductor industry must look for other avenues of growth potential. Despite the challenges, IoT remains the most logical choice for the industry. IoT applications cannot function without sensors and integrated circuits, so semiconductors are needed for all IoT devices. The smartphone market, which has driven the semiconductor industry's growth for years, has begun to level off. The IoT market could generate new revenues for semiconductor manufacturers and keep the semiconductor industry growing at a 3% to 4% compound annual growth rate for the foreseeable future.

Semiconductor Megatrends and Future Opportunities

Semiconductor technology process nodes are a measure of the size of chip transistors and other components. The number of nodes has steadily increased over the years, leading to a corresponding increase in computing power. Nodes often imply different circuit generations and architectures. In general, smaller technology nodes mean smaller feature sizes, which result in smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient transistors. This trend is enabling the development of more powerful computers and smaller devices. There is a relationship between process node and CMOS transistor performance. Frequency, power, and physical size are all affected by the choice of process node. This is why it is important to understand how semiconductor processes have evolved over time. The history of semiconductor technology nodes dates back to the 1970s, when Intel released its first microprocessor, the 4004. Since then, we have seen an exponential increase in computing power due to advances in semiconductor technology node size. This has allowed us to create smaller, more powerful devices such as smartphones, tablets, and wearables. the Apple A15 Bionic is at the heart of most of today's newest Apple products, utilizing nearly four billion active transistors at 7nm node technology.

The Role of Process Nodes in Semiconductor Technology

Semiconductor nodes are a key determinant of microcontroller performance. As technology advances, the number of nodes in each microcontroller continues to increase. This trend has been observed over the past few years and is expected to continue in the future. A technology node (also known as a process node, process technology, or simply a node) refers to a specific semiconductor manufacturing process and its design rules. Different nodes usually mean different circuit generations and architectures. In general, the smaller the process node, the smaller the feature size, the smaller the transistor, the faster and more energy efficient the process. Historically, process node names referred to many different characteristics of transistors, including gate length and M1 half pitch. More recently, due to various marketing campaigns and disagreements among foundries, the number itself has lost its true meaning. Newer technology nodes such as 22nm, 16nm, 14nm, and 10nm refer only to specific generations of chips manufactured using specific technologies. It does not correspond to gate length or half pitch. Nonetheless, the naming convention is respected, and this is how the nodes are referred to by the major foundries.

Early semiconductor processes had arbitrary names, e.g., HMOS III, CHMOS V. Later, each new generation of processes was referred to as a technology node or process node, with the gate length expressed in terms of the nanometer (or historically 1-micron) smallest feature size of the process transistor, e.g., "90 nm process". However, since 1994, the situation has changed and the number of nanometers used to name a process node has become a marketing term that has nothing to do with the actual feature size or transistor density (number of transistors per square millimeter).

Evolution of the Technology Node Process

Essentially, a technology node corresponds to the physical feature size of a transistor. Originally, each microcontroller was composed of transistors, which were essentially switches that controlled the flow of current and allowed the microcontroller to perform its logic functions. Technology nodes such as 28 nm or 65 nm refer to the smallest data graphical feature (half pitch or gate length) that can be plotted on a layout. However, the naming of technology nodes is not standardized. Node names such as 28 nm or 65 nm are actually derived from the minimum gate length of the transistor as shown in conventional planar MOSFET configurations. In general, the technology node gives the density of transistors per square millimeter of substrate. Beginning with 22nm technology, the technology has shifted to finned field effect transistors (FinFETs), where the architecture behind the FinFET is a three-dimensional configuration and the term gate length is no longer appropriate to describe the process technology. Today, as the technology moves from planar architectures to FinFETs or Gate-All-Access FETs (GAA FETs), technology nodes such as 10 and 5 nm no longer correspond to any gate length or half-pitch distance.