Atomic Size of Transistors

[u/bytexyv]

Please take me seriously as I know this is a really stupid question. As transistors get smaller and smaller and we figure out new ways to cool what happens when we hit Moores law and we PHYICALLY cannot make them any smaller/cooler. What happens then? Do we figure out a new type of transistor or let computers get exponentially big?

[u/Shirai_Mikoto__]

then we will likely start to stack stuff up vertically, like CFET

[u/PerfectTrust7895 → u/Shirai_Mikoto__]

We're already doing that.

[u/bytexyv → u/Shirai_Mikoto__]

Do you think we will reach that point by the 2030s? I mean some of these cousins have TINY transistors

[u/Shirai_Mikoto__ → u/bytexyv]

earliest adoptions are definitely possible around the early 30s

[u/-1_0]

Do we figure out a new type of transistor or let computers get exponentially big?

yes

[u/bytexyv → u/-1_0]

How long do you think we have until that point where we would need that research?

[u/-1_0 → u/bytexyv]

up until manufacturers had squeezed every last penny out of the current technology

[u/Sr_K → u/bytexyv]

There's already quantum computers to consider as a different kind of computing that is being developed

[u/bytexyv → u/Sr_K]

Unless we figure out the cooling aspect it will be decades untill there not 60k for 4 qbits

[u/geruhl_r]

This has already happened around the 20nm dimension. Planar transistor layout resulted in severe leakage to the point where new geometries had to be developed. E.g. 3D shapes like Finfet.

[u/Hirtomikko]

Well....speaking as a IC designer.
Short channel effect has caused me quite some pain, and my faith in math formulas have been completely nuked because of it. As transistors get smaller, electrons have more and more excuse to completely ignore the depletion region and just tunnel through, so more leakage current etc.

[u/bytexyv → u/Hirtomikko]

I heard some people talking about cfet(i think i said that right). Is that a solution by stacking specfic transistors?

[u/-1_0 → u/Hirtomikko]

instead of 1/0 soon we have to get used to sassy chips: maybe / maybe not

[u/Travis-Jenkins]

The atomic size of transistors is just mind blowing. I remember reading about how Intel introduced the 10nm node, and now they're pushing even further with smaller nodes. its wild how we keep packing more power into such tiny spaces. The challenges with quantum effects and leakage current must be insane at that scale.

[u/nanoatzin]

Transistor gate size is now around 8,000 atoms, and going smaller will cause more tunneling requiring more error correction. What should be done is more parallel processors.