TSMC announced the achievement of a 1 nm process technology, which will allow the creation of processors with transistors as thin as one atom

To do this, the company replaced traditional silicon with bismuth and molybdenum sulfide.

One of the largest processor manufacturers, the Taiwanese company TSMC announced a breakthrough in the development of a one-nanometer technological process. This is 5-7 times less than the technical process used in modern processors from AMD, Samsung and Apple. To overcome the 1 nm milestone, TSMC attracted specialists from the strongest American universities and National Taiwan University.

Process size refers to how small a scale the equipment used to produce processors can operate. Now processors for smartphones, laptops and computers are made using a 5-7 nanometer process technology. This is only 80-100 times the size of individual atoms. In 2022, TSMC plans to switch to a three-nanometer process technology.

Reducing the process technology allows you to fit more transistors into the processor. In general, the smaller the technical process, the higher the performance of the processor and the less energy it consumes during operation.

To reach the 1 nm mark, researchers replaced the silicon common in processors with bismuth and molybdenum sulfide. They were used to make “two-dimensional” transistors, the thickness of which is one or more atoms. Previously, such transistors could not be made to transmit current to each other, but it turned out that for this it was enough to select the right materials.

True, it is not yet possible to assemble a full-fledged electronic circuit from the resulting transistors; these are only prototypes. So the introduction of the 1 nm process technology into production is still a long way off. At the same time, IBM recently released the first ready-made wafer with processors based on the 2 nm process technology. They promise a 75% reduction in power consumption or a 45% increase in performance compared to 7nm chips.

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