The semiconductor industry is experiencing significant advancements in digital, analog, tool, manufacturing technology, and materials. Chip development requires highly precise and complex processes at every level 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 goal, the industry is adopting the latest technology to improve the efficiency and output of highly advanced process nodes.
The backbone of semiconductors, the Internet of Things, and digital transformation
We are witnessing significant advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT), smart devices, and the recent 5G field. To understand where these innovations will lead us and what we should expect from them, we need a basic understanding of the foundational technologies that make this new wave of innovation possible. With the development of semiconductor technology driven Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, the evolution of artificial intelligence will be faster than ever before. In the past 30 years, the development of semiconductor technology has been the driving force behind the growth of computing power. It is said that semiconductors account for about 50% of the cost of computing hardware. Based on semiconductor technology, the integration of artificial intelligence computing devices with society will be more seamless and ubiquitous. An example is the autonomous vehicle, which uses ubiquitous mobile edge computing and complex algorithms to process and analyze driving data. Based on 5G communication infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning use computer vision to understand the surrounding environment, and then plan and execute safe driving operations. This makes travel safer, smarter, and more efficient. IoT devices can turn almost any product into a smart device, from water supply systems to clothing. Retail, healthcare, life sciences, consumer goods, and industrial IoT all have high demand.
Future innovation will also make personalized chips easier to obtain and make chip production more efficient, and most importantly, more sustainable. With the increasing prevalence of interconnected devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) is crucial for the semiconductor industry. As the smartphone industry stagnates, the semiconductor industry must seek other avenues with growth potential. Despite facing challenges, the Internet of Things remains the most logical choice for the industry. Without sensors and integrated circuits, IoT applications cannot operate, therefore all IoT devices require semiconductors. The smartphone market, which has driven the growth of the semiconductor industry for many years, has begun to stabilize. The IoT market can bring new revenue to semiconductor manufacturers and maintain a compound annual growth rate of 3% to 4% for the semiconductor industry in the foreseeable future.
The general trend and future opportunities of semiconductors
Semiconductor technology process nodes are indicators for measuring the size of chip transistors and other components. The number of nodes has been steadily increasing over the years, resulting in a corresponding increase in computing power. Nodes typically refer to different circuit generations and architectures. Generally speaking, smaller technology nodes mean smaller feature sizes, which result in smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient transistors. This trend enables us to develop more powerful computers and smaller devices. There is a relationship between process nodes and the performance of CMOS transistors. Frequency, power, and physical size are all influenced by the selection of process nodes. This is why it is important to understand how semiconductor processes evolve over time. The history of semiconductor technology nodes can be traced back to the 1970s, when Intel released its first microprocessor, the 4004. Since then, due to the advancement of semiconductor technology node size, we have seen exponential growth in computing power. This enables us to create smaller and more powerful devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices. The Apple A15 Bionic is the core of most of Apple's latest products today, featuring nearly 4 billion working transistors with 7-nanometer node technology.
The role of process nodes in semiconductor technology
Semiconductor nodes are the key factor determining the performance of microcontrollers. With the advancement of technology, the number of nodes in each microcontroller continues to increase. This trend has been observed in the past few years and is expected to continue in the future. Technical nodes (also known as process nodes, process technologies, or simply nodes) refer to specific semiconductor manufacturing processes and their design rules. Different nodes usually mean different circuit generations and architectures. Generally speaking, the smaller the process node, the smaller the feature size, the smaller the transistor, the faster the speed, and the more energy-efficient it is. In history, process node names referred to many different characteristics of transistors, including gate length and M1 half pitch. Recently, due to various marketing campaigns and disagreements between contract manufacturers, this number itself has lost its exact meaning. Newer technological nodes, such as 22nm, 16nm, 14nm, and 10nm, only refer to specific generations of chips manufactured using specific technologies. It does not correspond to the gate length or half spacing. Nevertheless, the naming convention has been respected, which is how the main contract manufacturers refer to nodes.
Early semiconductor processes had arbitrary names, for example, HMOS III，CHMOS V。 Later on, each new generation process was referred to as a technology node or process node, with the gate length represented by the minimum feature size of the nanometer (or historically 1-micron) process of the process transistor, such as the "90 nanometer process". However, since 1994, the situation has changed and the number of nanometers used to name process nodes has become a marketing term, independent of actual feature size or transistor density (number of transistors per square millimeter).
The Evolution of Technical Node Processes
Essentially, technical nodes correspond to the physical characteristic dimensions of transistors. Initially, each microcontroller was composed of transistors, which were essentially switches that controlled the flow of current, allowing the microcontroller to perform its logical functions. Technical nodes such as 28 nanometers or 65 nanometers refer to the minimum data graphic features (half spacing or gate length) that can be plotted on the layout. However, the naming of technical nodes is not standardized. Node names such as 28 nm or 65 nm actually come from the minimum gate length of transistors shown in traditional planar MOSFET configurations. Generally speaking, the technology node provides the density of transistors per square millimeter of substrate. Starting from 22nm technology, this technology has shifted towards FinFET, where the architecture behind FinFET is a three-dimensional configuration and the term gate length is no longer suitable for describing process technology. Nowadays, as technology shifts from planar structures to FinFET or all gate FET (GAA FET), technology nodes such as 10 and 5 nanometers no longer correspond to any gate length or half spacing distance.