IBM and Samsung Electronics have jointly announced a breakthrough in semiconductor design utilizing a new vertical transistor architecture that demonstrates a path to scaling beyond nanosheet, and has the potential to reduce energy usage by 85 percent compared to a scaled fin field-effect transistor (finFET) . The global semiconductor shortage has highlighted the critical role of investment in chip research and development and the importance of chips in everything from computing, to appliances, to communication devices, transportation systems, and critical infrastructure.

The new vertical transistor breakthrough could help the semiconductor industry continue its relentless journey to deliver significant improvements, including:
• Potential device architecture that enables semiconductor device scaling to continue beyond nanosheet.
• Cell phone batteries that could go over a week without being charged, instead of days.
• Energy intensive processes, such as cryptomining operations and data encryption, could require significantly less energy and have a smaller carbon footprint.
• Continued expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices with lower energy needs, allowing them to operate in more diverse environments like ocean buoys, autonomous vehicles, and spacecraft.

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