[Want a Byte? Ep.6] Tackling Nanoscaling in the Foundry Industry: How GAA and MBCFET™ Are Changing the Game

Transistors have a humble role: generating 1s and 0s. However, when huge numbers of transistors carry out this simple task in unison, the possibilities are endless. Despite their tiny size, transistors are completely crucial to today’s – and tomorrow’s – most advanced technologies.

With each new generation of semiconductor chips, transistors get smaller and smaller, which in turn enables more and more powerful technologies. But for semiconductors to shrink, transistors need to shrink too.

This creates a problem called the Short Channel Effect, and it is one that has been troubling the best minds in the semiconductor industry.

Think of a transistor like a faucet. It allows you to turn a flow – current, in this case – on and off. But the more you shrink this faucet, the more likely it is to start leaking. In the Short Channel Effect, the transistor gets too small and its gate stops working properly, which results in issues with current leakage and regulation.

Samsung Electronics, however, has a solution: Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology.

GAA is a new way of structuring transistors that places the gate of the transistor around four different sides of a channel. GAA is like having four faucets installed on the mouth of your pipe instead of one, and it significantly boosts control, technological capacity and power efficiency for its users.

With the recent development of its patented MBCFET^TM GAA structure, Samsung Electronics is ready to provide more powerful and flexible solutions to the Short Channel Effect than ever to meet the diverse needs of its fabless customers.

But how did game-changing technologies like GAA technology and MBCFET^TM come about? To learn more, check out this video above!