Updates in silicon and electronics technology.

Ed.: This is a special feature courtesy of Binghamton University.

IBM unveils world’s first 2nm chip technology. SIBM announced a breakthrough in semiconductor design and process with the development of the world’s first chip announced with 2nm nanosheet technology. The new design is projected to achieve 45% higher performance and 75% lower energy use than today’s 7nm chips. IBM said this new frontier in chip technology will accelerate advancements in AI, 5G and 6G, edge computing, autonomous systems, space exploration, and quantum computing. The technology would likely not be in high volume production until 2024. (IEEC file #12281, Semiconductor Digest, 4/27/21)

“Egg carton” quantum dot array could lead to ultralow power devices. University of Michigan researchers have developed a new approach by sending and receiving information with single photons of light using a “quantum egg carton” that captures and releases photons, supporting “excited” quantum states while it possesses the extra energy. Their experiment demonstrated the effect known as nonlinearity to modify and detect extremely weak light signals. This takes advantage of distinct changes to a quantum system to advance next-generation computing. As silicon-electronics-based information technology becomes increasingly throttled by heating and energy consumption, nonlinear optics is a potential solution. (IEEC file #12154, Science Daily, 3/4/21)

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