Transistors are considered a technology far ahead of their time. Invented in 1947, the technological breakthrough fetched the Nobel Prize in Physics for Walter Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Shockley. Since its invention, Transistors have been instrumental in bringing many radical changes to technologies around us.
Between 2008 and 2019, the sales of power transistors increased from 10 billion US dollars to 18.6 billion US dollars. The steady growth reflects an unflinching demand for transistors, indicating the potential of the technology and its inherent strength as a solution.
Essentially, a transistor is a semiconductor device that amplifies or switches electronic signals. They could be bipolar, also known as bipolar junction transistors or BJTs, field-effect transistors (FETs), and insulated-gate bipolar transistors or IGBTs.
The first type, the bipolar transistor, uses both electrons and holes as charge carriers. The field-effect transistor is a unipolar device constructed with no pn junction in the main current-carrying path, while IGBT consists of a voltage-driven MOSFET followed by a high-current transistor.
While the above are some of the fixed categories or traditional segments, the potential of the transistor keeps expanding with time. Market reports suggest that the next-generation transistor market is all set to thrive. By type, these transistors could include Hetero junction Bipolar Transistors (HBT), High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT), Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFET), and more.
These transistors leverage a diverse combination of materials like Gallium Nitride (GaN), Indium Arsenide (InAs), Indium Phosphide (InP), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), etc. They have a range of applications, including mobile phones, microwave systems, satellites, and aerospace.
Today, we focus on these next-gen transistors. We begin with research that aims to solve the larger problem.
Scaling Silicon Transistors with InGaOx GAA Structures
With electronics becoming smaller each day, there is a pressing need to scale down silicon-based transistors. A team of researchers led by the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo took the challenge head-on. Reportedly, the team is set to publish a paper in the 2025 Symposium on VLSI, detailing their breakthrough. The team could do away with Silicon and opted to create a transistor from gallium-doped indium oxide (InGaOx), a material that could be structured as a crystalline oxide, whose orderly crystal lattice is well-suited for electron mobility.
According to Alan Chen, the lead author of the study, the team wanted their “crystalline oxide transistor to feature a ‘gate-all-around’ structure, whereby the gate, which turns the current on or off, surrounds the channel where the current flows.” The team, according to Chen, could wrap ‘the gate entirely around the channel’ and enhance ‘efficiency and scalability compared with traditional gates.’
While explaining the specialities of Indium Oxide, the compound that played an instrumental role in all these, Masaharu Kobayashi, senior author of the research, had the following to say,
“Indium oxide contains oxygen-vacancy defects, which facilitate carrier scattering and thus lower device stability.”
The researchers doped indium oxide with gallium to suppress oxygen vacancies, thereby improving transistor reliability.
The team achieved a significant scientific and technological breakthrough by leveraging atomic-layer deposition to coat the channel region of a gate-all-around transistor with a thin film of InGaOx, one atomic layer at a time. Subsequently, the team heated the film to transform it into a much-needed crystalline structure that facilitates electron mobility.
Gate-All-Around (GAA) MOSFET: Design & Advantages
If one has to single out the most crucial achievement of this research, it is enabling the fabrication of a gate-all-around ‘metal oxide-based field-effect transistor’ (MOSFET).
It is because the gate-all-around MOSFET could achieve mobility as high as 44.5 cm2/Vs. The team asserted that its device could demonstrate ‘promising reliability by operating stably under applied stress for nearly three hours.’ The team went on to claim that its MOSFET outperformed similar devices reported earlier.
While we delve further into gate-all-around transistors in a bit, it is vital to summarise the implications of this research and the impacts it would have on further scientific research in this space. Early reports suggest that the research could open up new avenues for creating transistor designs that take into account the importance of both materials and structure. The research would help develop trustworthy, high-density electrical components that meet the need for computation-intensive solutions, such as those used in big data and AI.
We are practically living in the age of AI and big data. Undoubtedly, the research would pave new ways for building more effective solutions. However, the ground covered by gate-all-around transistors might be much bigger than what it presents now.
Click here to learn how foundries are helping the thin film transistor industry mature.
What Makes GAA Transistors Superior?
GAA or gate-all-around transistors come with an advanced transistor structure where the gate can come into contact with the channel on all sides. In other words, these transistors make continuous scaling possible.
What highlights its technological ingenuity is the stack of horizontal sheets that improve the control of the transistor channel. These sheets are stacked nanosheets. Since the separate horizontal sheets are vertically stacked, the gate can surround the channel on all four sides, reducing leakage and increasing drive current. The result is improved passing of signals through and between the transistors. Such superior passing of signals improves chip performance and allows chipmakers the flexibility to experiment with the width of the nanosheets so they can offer the best possible sheet for a particular chip design.
Nanosheets are efficient in many ways. Wide nanosheets allow for higher and better drive current, while narrow nanosheets can optimize power consumption. This versatility makes GAA transistors ready to become the most sophisticated among their peers in the near future.
Moreover, these transistors are cost-effective. They can be manufactured affordably, helping to keep the mass production of advanced chips affordable. Ultimately, this will help improve the performance of everything electronic around us, including 5G connectivity, gaming, graphics, AI solutions, medical technology, automotive technology, and more.
Investing in GAA Transistors
While GAA has advanced significantly in recent times, the interest around it has been present among the scientific community for quite some time now. Records suggest that the first GAA technology was demonstrated in 1986. However, it was only in 2022 that Samsung, for the first time, manufactured the first GAA-enabled chip at a 3-nm processor node. Samsung called its GAA flavour Multi-Bridge-Channel FET (MOSFET), which utilized nanosheets with wider channels, enabling higher performance and greater energy efficiency compared to GAA technologies that used nanowires with narrower channels.
Since then, many companies have worked on it. However, Intel (INTC +0.44%), in particular, looks like a solid option right now because it’s one of the few actually bringing GAA transistor tech into real production. Their 18A process, which uses RibbonFET and PowerVia, is already showing real gains in performance and efficiency, and it’s backed by a wide group of partners across design and manufacturing.
What makes it more interesting is that Intel isn’t just designing chips; it’s building them too, in the United States. So, Intel has the momentum, scale, and a clear roadmap. With AI and high-performance computing growing rapidly, their position feels much more dominant than that of several other firms in this domain.
Intel (INTC +0.44%)
RibbonFET was Intel’s first Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor, offering up to 15% better performance per watt compared to FinFET, its technological predecessor. In 2021, Intel introduced Intel 18A, its RibbonFET gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology.
Apart from 15% better performance per watt, the solution promised a 30% improvement in chip density compared to the Intel 3 process node. Intel claimed it to be the earliest available sub-2nm advanced node manufactured in North America, offering a resilient supply alternative for customers.
The solution featured the industry-first PowerVia backside power delivery technology as its backbone. It helped improve density and cell utilization by 5 to 10 percent and reduce resistive power delivery droop, resulting in up to a 4 percent ISO-power performance improvement. It also significantly reduced inherent resistance (IR) drop vs. front-side power designs.
As already discussed, the implementation of GAA transistor technology helped Intel enable precise control of electrical current, allowing further miniaturization of chip components while reducing power leakage, a critical concern for increasingly dense chips.
The Omni MIM capacitors helped reduce inductive power droop, enhancing stable chip operation. Intel believed this enhancement could prove crucial for modern workloads like generative AI, which require sudden and intense computational power.
Intel’s GAA transistor technology was fully supported by industry-standard EDA tools and reference flows, creating a seamless upgrade from other technology nodes. Intel claims that it is possible for its customers to start designing with PowerVia ahead of other backside power solutions.
The whole ecosystem took part in making the technology cutting-edge as the development involved a robust assembly of more than 35 industry-leading ecosystem partners, ranging across EDA, IP, design services, cloud services, and aerospace and defence.
Intel Keeps Evolving with the 18A Family of Solutions.
Intel has 18A-P and 18A-PT. The 18A-PT is a substantive addition as it is designed for AI and HPC customers building next-generation 3DIC designs. The solution features an updated back-end metal stack, pass-through TSVs, die-to-die TSVs, and advanced hybrid bonding interface (HBI) enablement with industry-leading pitch.
Intel claims the solution to be apt for significantly enhanced scalability and integration for advanced workloads, empowering customers to push the boundaries of AI and high-performance computing.
Apart from 18A-PT, Intel also has 18A-P. This relatively older variant builds on the second implementation of Intel’s RibbonFET and PowerVia technologies to deliver next-generation performance and enhanced power efficiency.
The solution features new, lower-threshold-voltage and leakage-optimized devices, as well as new fine-grain ribbon widths, to achieve significant performance per watt gains and improved transistor performance.
The Real Life Use Cases of Intel’s GAA Transistor Technology
For high-performance computing and AI applications, Intel’s solutions provide superior channel control, offering improved transistor performance per watt with high drive current and scalability.
RibbonFET’s area reduction enables more functionality in smaller chips, which is beneficial for compact medical and industrial sensors.
It helps build sophisticated mobile and broadband processors by addressing the needs of mobile applications. Its advanced manufacturing techniques help ensure consistent, reliable performance, while fine-tuned threshold voltages deliver exceptional power efficiency, resulting in an overall improvement in battery life for mobile devices.
The solution also proves effective for aerospace and defense needs that demand increased computing power and have strict size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) requirements.
Intel 18A solutions have a low IR drop that provides the efficiency needed for power-constrained applications without compromising the performance.
With all these enhancements and features packed into its solution, Intel’s GAA technology is nothing less than transformative. Its performance is in line with what is typically expected of Intel, a powerhouse of technological innovation.
In January 2025, Intel reported a fourth-quarter revenue of $14.3 billion, down 7% year-over-year (YoY), while its full-year revenue was $53.1 billion, down 2% YoY.
Intel Corporation (INTC +0.44%)
While Intel is expected to continue with its GAA innovation and reach new milestones, overall research around GAA transistors is at full swing.
Latest Intel Corporation (INTC) Stock News and Developments
The Future Possibilities with GAA
Another industry leader in this area, Samsung, believed that GAA transistors would soon find their way into next-generation semiconductor applications that required high performance and low power consumption, from AI to Big Data, autonomous driving, and the Internet of Things.
A research paper, published in 20241, investigates Gate-All-Around Field-Effect Transistors (GAA FETs) as viable solutions for modern low-power and high-performance electronic applications. The researchers carried out extensive experimental analysis involving fabrication, electrical characterization, and simulation modeling to delve into the intrinsic electrical properties and performance metrics of GAA FETs.
They rigorously looked into multiple key parameters such as threshold voltage, leakage current, subthreshold swing, and transconductance to assess the transistor’s operational efficiency for low-power applications. Moreover, they developed and validated advanced simulation models to accurately predict GAA FET behavior, facilitating future design enhancements for high-performance computing. While drawing conclusions, the research highlighted the advantageous features of GAA FETs and positioned them as promising candidates for fulfilling the requirements of both low-power consumption and high-performance computing.
Another vital research, published in 2022, looked into GAA nanosheet FET process opportunities. The researchers claimed that many involved in the field were already thinking about what lies beyond nanosheet FETs. They claimed that the top contenders to continue Moore’s law scaling are the Vertical Transport FETs (VTFETs) and stacked transistors.
The researchers also looked into processing challenges that stand in the way of gate-all-around nanosheet transistor technology. They categorized the challenges into four broad categories:
- Self-heating
- Mechanical stability during fabrication
- Device variability
- Si–SiGe intermixing
The researchers highlighted that although novel substrates, such as diamond on silicon, could provide improved Self-Heating Effects, such a scheme was less likely to be adopted in high-volume manufacturing.
They admitted that nanosheets allowed for design flexibility, and the aspect ratio of the sheets and the mechanical integrity of the inner spacer played a crucial role in the overall stability of these sheets. They stressed the need for optimizing device variability, which could result from several sources, including, but not limited to, line-edge roughness, gate-edge roughness, non-uniform work function metal deposition, and random dopant fluctuations.
They specifically talked about how the Si-SiGe stack for nanosheets itself was susceptible to thermal intermixing when going through numerous thermal cycles before the channel release step. However, they confirmed that as long as the SiGe channels could be etched selectively to Si channel sheets, and Si sheets were not over-etched due to Si–SiGe intermixing, this effect was tolerable.
While all these challenges persist, one must go back to basics to understand why GAA transistors are pathbreaking in the growth trajectory of transistor tech. GAA was superior to its predecessor, FinFETs, because it solved many challenges associated with the leakage current since its channels were horizontal. And, secondly, since GAA transistors were surrounded by gates on all four sides, they helped the structure of a transistor. The improved structure could control the current more precisely than the FinFET process.
Apart from companies like Intel and Samsung, TSMC, a leader in this space, also started employing GAA transistors in the initial generation of its N2 process technology. The FinFET Semiconductor process, despite remaining a manufacturing standard for several years, witnessed significant enhancements with the arrival of GAA technology.
Experts see the GAA process technology as a major milestone in silicon lithography as well. They expect GAA to take the baton and elevate the semiconductor industry to the next level of silicon scaling from where the FinFET process technology had left it.
Researchers are also optimistic about the advances achieved in negative capacitance GAA field effect transistors. They highlighted that GAA-FET’s superior gate control and higher SCE suppression ability than FinFET, due to its surrounding gate structure, would allow it to rule the semiconductor market for 3 nm technology nodes and beyond. However, they cautioned that, despite GAA-FET demonstrating its superiority as a potential option for reducing SCE, the rise in power consumption could not be ignored.
Another research provoked the scientific community to look beyond transistor-level innovation and realize the importance of innovation in the fields of interconnects and power delivery for completeness. They mentioned a proposal in the field of power delivery, known as the buried power rail (BPR), which proposes moving the power rails to be located below the transistor devices, thereby providing area on the front side for routing flexibility and reducing conductor crowding. However, it presents several technical challenges, including backside patterning, aligning the structures on the front side with those on the back side, and wafer thinning on the back side of the wafer.
Summarily, like any other field of innovation, transistors also need to go through the consistent process of trials and errors to become better with time. However, for now, GAA is showing promising results and might rule the roost in the near future.
Click here for a list of top non-silicon computing companies.
Studies Referenced:
1. Reddy Hemantha, G., Priya, A. S., Suman, J. V., Rao, T. V. J., Priyadarshini, G. M. A., & Mallam, M. (2024, May). Characterization and modeling of Gate-All-Around FET (GAA FET) for low-power and high-performance applications. In 2024 International Conference on Advances in Modern Age Technologies for Health and Engineering Science (AMATHE). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/AMATHE61652.2024.10582059arge in solid electrolytes. ACS Energy Letters, 10(3), 1255–1257. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c03398