3D Transistors (FinFET)
Silicon goes 3D to save Moore's Law.
Explore this event on the interactive timeline →As transistors shrank toward the atomic level, they began leaking electrons, threatening to break Moore's Law. Intel released the "Ivy Bridge" microarchitecture featuring 22-nanometer "Tri-Gate" (FinFET) transistors, shifting from flat 2D designs to 3D vertical fins to maintain control of the electrical current.
Key Numbers
- Transistors (2000)
- 42 Million
- Transistors (2012 Ivy Bridge)
- 1.4 Billion
Verified Facts
- Before 2012, all computer chips used flat, planar transistors. As they got smaller than 22nm, they became too small to effectively trap electrons, causing massive heat and power loss.
- By turning the silicon channel into a 3D "fin," engineers increased the surface area for the gate to control the current, allowing transistors to continue shrinking toward the single-digit nanometer scale.
- The flagship Ivy Bridge desktop processors packed roughly 1.4 Billion transistors, acting as the critical bridge between the millions of transistors in the 2000s and the hundreds of billions today.