7 nanometer

In semiconductor manufacturing, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors defines the 7 nanometer (7 nm) node as the technology node following the 10 nm node.

Single transistor 7 nm scale devices were first produced in the early 2000s – as of 2015 commercial production of 7 nm chips is at a development stage.

History

Technology demos

In 2002, IBM produced a 6 nm transistor.

In 2003, NEC produced a 5 nm transistor.

In 2012, IBM produced a sub-10 nm carbon nanotube transistor that outperformed silicon on speed and power. "The superior low-voltage performance of the sub-10 nm CNT transistor proves the viability of nanotubes for consideration in future aggressively scaled transistor technologies," according to the abstract of the paper in Nano Letters.

In July 2015, IBM announced that they had built the first functional transistors with 7 nm technology, using a silicon-germanium process.

Expected commercialisation and technologies

Although Intel has not yet divulged any certain plans to manufacturers or retailers, it has already stated that it would no longer use silicon at this node. A possible replacement material for silicon would be indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs).