At its annual technology symposium, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. revealed its new process technology designed specifically for ultra-low power devices. The N12e node promises to improve the performance of various Internet of Things (IOT) products that need to combine rich functionality and long battery life. Most very low power foundry manufacturing processes today are based on planar transistors. By contrast, all high performance nodes have long used a FinFET transistor with much higher performance and scaling potential. An evolution of TSMC's 12FFC+_ULL node, the N12e technology uses FinFET transistors, but offers higher power efficiency than modern low-power nodes.
Ultra-low power FinFET
TSMC claims that its N12e process has 76% higher logic density than its 22ULL manufacturing technology, 49% faster at a given power, or 55% less power at a given frequency. Additionally, the node reduces SRAM leakage current by 50% and supports 0,4V operation.
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(Image credit: TSMC) Using FinFET technology for a low power process increases the performance potential of devices that need to be highly power efficient. Ultimately, N12e technology allows companies to create products with capabilities and performance that are not possible today. “Adapting TSMC's ultra-high performance 16/12 nm FinFET technology to IOT products provided clear performance benefits, but required us to adapt our recipe to improve power efficiency and reduce leakage. Special attention has been paid to the characteristics of out-of-state leaks,” wrote Godfrey Cheng, TSMC global marketing director. TSMC says its N12e node is for a variety of IOT devices and advanced devices that need to deliver performance comparable to servers. The market for these devices will grow rapidly; According to analyst firm IDC, there will be more than 40 billion connected IOT devices by 2025. Source: TSMC