▲ The world's first sub-1nm process wafer developed by IBM
U.S. tech giant IBM has become the first in the world to surpass the 1nm (nanometer, one-billionth of a meter) barrier, which had long been considered the limit of semiconductor micro-fabrication.
IBM announced on June 25 (local time) that it has developed "NanoStack" architecture, a 0.7nm (7Å, or angstrom) process technology, marking the world's first "sub-1nm" chip technology.
The performance of a semiconductor is determined by how small and densely the transistors, which are the internal computational components, can be integrated.
Moving away from the industry practice of miniaturization by arranging transistor components as densely as possible on a flat plane, the NanoStack architecture utilizes a stacking method that alternates and builds components in a vertical direction.
IBM introduced that by utilizing NanoStack technology, it is possible to pack 100 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail, which is double the density of the 2nm chips announced in 2021.
The company explained that this can increase chip computing performance by 50% or boost power efficiency by up to 70%, potentially resolving the power crisis in AI data centers.
Furthermore, the memory (SRAM) space efficiency inside the chip is improved by 40%, making it advantageous for designing AI semiconductors that require high bandwidth.
Huiming Bu, Vice President of Global Semiconductor R&D at IBM Research, emphasized, "NanoStack is not a one-off innovation," adding, "Over the next decade, products ranging from 7Å, 5Å, and 3Å down to 1Å will emerge based on this architecture across multiple generations."
IBM stated that NanoStack is a general-purpose technology that can be used in all areas, including CPUs, GPUs, and mobile chips, and projected that the actual production of products applying this technology could begin as early as five years from now.
With the development of sub-1nm technology, the competition for supremacy in the foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) industry, currently a three-way race between TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and Intel, is expected to intensify further.
In particular, considering that Rapidus, a foundry company established in 2022 under the leadership of the Japanese government, is a partner of IBM, the possibility that Rapidus could emerge as a dark horse in the future foundry market is being raised.
IBM is currently transferring 2nm production technology to Rapidus.
Jay Gambetta, Vice President of IBM Quantum, responded to a question during a pre-press briefing about which company IBM would partner with to commercialize the newly developed technology by saying, "We will deliberate on how to industrialize this technology in the future," while drawing a line by adding, "I will not disclose specific details."
Meanwhile, IBM recently announced plans to establish Anderon, a foundry company for pure quantum semiconductor production.
IBM added that Anderon, which will be established as an independent entity, plans to support the U.S. in playing a major role in global quantum wafer production based on IBM's quantum computing and semiconductor technology capabilities.
(Photo: Provided by IBM, Yonhap News)
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