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Definition: process technology
The particular manufacturing method used to make silicon chips, which is measured by the size of the transistor's elements. The driving force behind the design of integrated circuits is miniaturization, and process technology boils down to the never-ending goal of "make it smaller." As transistors get smaller, they switch faster and use less energy. Smaller also means more computing power per square inch that can be placed into ever tighter quarters. See EUV machine and digital perfection.
Feature Size Measured in Nanometers
The size of the features (the elements that make up the transistors) are measured in nanometers. A 25 nm process technology refers to features 25 nm or 0.025 µm in size. Also called a "technology node" and "process node," early chips were measured in micrometers (see table below).
New Chips Are Not Always Smaller
The smallest feature sizes are found on the latest, high-end CPU and SoC chips that retail for several hundred dollars apiece. However, 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) are used by the billions every year and sell for as little as 50 cents in quantity. They require far fewer transistors that do not need to be as dense. A $2 microcontroller has feature sizes similar to the high-end chips a decade or two earlier. See microcontroller, CPU and SoC.
You Won't Believe How Small They Are!
As hard as this is to fathom, using state-of-the-art process technology, one square millimeter holds more than 100 million transistors (see transistor density). See active area and half-node.
Half a Micrometer in Five Years
Feature Size Measured in Nanometers
The size of the features (the elements that make up the transistors) are measured in nanometers. A 25 nm process technology refers to features 25 nm or 0.025 µm in size. Also called a "technology node" and "process node," early chips were measured in micrometers (see table below).
New Chips Are Not Always Smaller
The smallest feature sizes are found on the latest, high-end CPU and SoC chips that retail for several hundred dollars apiece. However, 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) are used by the billions every year and sell for as little as 50 cents in quantity. They require far fewer transistors that do not need to be as dense. A $2 microcontroller has feature sizes similar to the high-end chips a decade or two earlier. See microcontroller, CPU and SoC.
You Won't Believe How Small They Are!
As hard as this is to fathom, using state-of-the-art process technology, one square millimeter holds more than 100 million transistors (see transistor density). See active area and half-node.
SEMICONDUCTOR FEATURE SIZES
Nanometers Micrometers
Year (nm) (µm)
1957 120,000 120.0
1963 30,000 30.0
1971 10,000 10.0
1974 6,000 6.0
1976 3,000 3.0
1982 1,500 1.5 *
1985 1,300 1.3 *
1989 1,000 1.0 *
1993 600 0.6 *
1996 350 0.35 *
1998 250 0.25 *
1999 180 0.18 *
2001 130 0.13 *
2003 90 0.09 *
2005 65 0.065
2008 45 0.045
2010 32 0.032 **
2012 22 0.022 **
2014 14 0.014
2017 10 0.010
2018 7 0.007
2020 5 0.005
2022 3 0.003
2024 2 0.002 ***
2025 1.8 0.0018 ****
* Range for MCUs
** Range for ASIC chips
*** 2 nm = about 20 atoms (20 angstroms)
**** 1.8 nm = about 18 atoms (18 angstroms)
In the 1990s, feature sizes of these AMD CPUs were reduced by half a micrometer. That may not seem like much, but 450 nanometers is huge in the chip world. See transistor density. (Images courtesy of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.)