IBM demonstrates nanosheet transistor prototype optimized with liquid nitrogen cooling that more than doubles performance compared to room temperature

At this year’s IEEE International Electronic Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco in early December, IBM researchers demonstrated the first advanced CMOS transistor optimized for liquid nitrogen cooling

According to our understanding, the boiling point of liquid nitrogen is very low, only -196°C, which is an ultra-low temperature that current mainstream electronic devices cannot withstand. However, in such a cold environment, the transistor's resistance and leakage current are significantly reduced, thus improving performance and reducing power consumption

IBM developed nanosheet transistors by cutting silicon channels into thin Nanosheets and a structure completely surrounded by gates achieve more effective electric field control. This structure can not only compress 50 billion transistors into an area the size of a fingernail, but also double the performance astonishingly under liquid nitrogen cooling

Rewrite: Low-temperature environments offer two main advantages: reduced charge carrier scattering and reduced power consumption. Reduced scattering means reduced resistance, which improves the ability of electrons to move in the device; reduced power consumption allows the device to drive greater current at the same voltage. In addition, liquid nitrogen cooling can also improve the on/off sensitivity of the transistor, requiring only smaller voltage changes to switch states, further reducing power consumption

However, low temperatures also bring new challenges: threshold voltage rise. Threshold voltage is the voltage required to turn a transistor on, and it increases as temperature drops, making it more difficult for the device to switch. It is difficult to reduce the threshold voltage with traditional processes, so IBM researchers used a new dual-metal gate and dual-dipole technology. They added different metal impurities at the interface of n-type and p-type transistors to form dipoles, thereby reducing the energy required for electrons to cross the conduction band edge and making the transistors more efficient

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