With its launch of Skylake in August 2015 Intel made the transition from 22nm to 14nm process technology. So far it looks like the next big step is going to happen during the second half of 2017 - according to plan, which will mark the release of the first Intel CPUs based on 10nm process technolgoy.

Meanwhile Intel appears to have finished making several facilities ready for 10nm process technology. This means that the company can now start the trial production stage. This information can be extracted from the financial outlook for the thrid quarter 2016.

Apparently the capability of manufacturing smaller transistors, thanks to improved process technology means that transistors can be produced more cost effective. Apart from that a smaller node also brings increased energy efficiency, thanks to the fact that the transistors can maintain stable operation at lower voltages.

10nm will be one of the last nodes, where quantum physics are not going to cause Intel engineers too much serious headache. At 7nm these problems will become more evident and smaller nodes will require the exploration of new materials to counter act electron migration for instance. So far it seems that Intel is exploring the possibility of using carbon nanotubes with a diameter of approximately 1nm. Since a silicon lattice is about 0.5nm thick and 10 lattices are necessary for making good devices a node <5nm is virtually impossible to achieve. Therefore the material that's been used for micro processors for over 50 years will see replacement starting from 2020 and onwards.






Source: WCCFTech