1 nm chip under development by TSMC
The largest chip manufacturer in the world is now developing microchips on an atomic scale. Will the 1nm chip from Taiwanese TSMC allow Moore’s Law to continue again?
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1 nm chip barrier cracked
After TSMC cracked the 3 nanometer process, the company took a radical leap. In collaboration with the American MIT and the Technical University of Taiwan, the Taiwanese succeeded in breaking through the 1 nanometer barrier, which was considered impregnable, using a radically new technique, reports EDN.
To realize how radically small this is: the smallest atom, that of hydrogen, is about 0.12 nm in size. This small scale means that you can build a lot of transistors on the chip and that quantum effects will become very important. This makes computers smaller, faster and more economical. But for the 1 nm chip, we probably have to switch from silicon to bismuth.
Bismuth, the savior from the distress
Bismuth is the heaviest chemical element that is not yet radioactive. At least, that’s what people thought until recently. It has now been discovered that bismuth is a tiny bit radioactive: if you wait until the universe is 1 billion times the age now, half of it will have disintegrated. This is so little radioactive that it has only been discovered with today’s highly sensitive equipment. It can therefore be safely processed in a 1 nm chip. B
ismut is not poisonous to us, but it is to the nasty stomach bacteria Helicobacter pylori. That is why it is widely used in, among other things, stomach acid tablets. This semi-metal is known among metal casting enthusiasts for the beautiful and bizarre crystals it forms. See above.
Bismuth as a substitute for silicon
The TSMC research team has now discovered that bismuth is much more suitable for making electronic components than silicon at the small size of a 1 nm chip. There is just one annoying problem. 90% of all bismuth comes from China, which is not on good terms with Taiwan. And bismuth is pretty scarce. It is only twice as abundant as gold in the earth’s crust.
1 nm chips will probably not be a reality for many years to come
At the moment TMC is just rolling out the 3 nanometer process. Manufacturers such as Apple are also busy supplying designs for the production of 3 nm chips. Consider, for example, Apple, which now does business directly with TSMC. So it will take a while. Probably midway through this decade (2025) or later, before we see the first 1nm devices in stores. But the thought is reassuring that computers will continue to improve for a while.
