Nanotechnologies: At the edge of Moore’s law…

Nanoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the design and manufacturing of electronic devices at the nanoscale. Nanoscale transistors are extremely small, making it possible to create faster, more efficient and more compact electronic circuits, microprocessors or microcontrollers.
Each generation of technology is defined by the size of the elementary transistor, that is to say the width of its channel. Transistors are electronic components that are used to control the flow of electrical current in a circuit. In nanoelectronics, transistors are extremely small, with a size on the order of a few nanometers.
The latest generation of electronic chips can contain billions of transistors, making it possible to create increasingly powerful computers and electronic devices.

There are only two nanoscale silicon-based technologies in the world:

• FinFET is an American non-planar transistor technology, or “3D transistor”. It is used in particular in computer processors, smartphones and tablets, servers and more broadly all large-volume electronic equipment for which computing power is decisive.
• FDSOI (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) is a technology designed in France by CEA-Leti in collaboration with STMicroelectronics and SOITEC. This technology uses an insulating layer to reduce power consumption and improve transistor performance. It is now widely used in mobile devices, communication networks and embedded systems.

The choice of technologies to adopt is guided by the best compromise between different performance factors: integration, speed, heat dissipation and cost.

These technologies are part of the ongoing race for miniaturization described by Moore’s law, which postulates a continued doubling of the number of transistors present on a microprocessor chip every two years.