Stone to Silicon

Computing · 2007

High-k metal gate

A new gate material to stop transistors from leaking.

Intel's 45 nm process replaced silicon dioxide with hafnium-based dielectric and metal gates. It cut leakage current sharply and kept scaling going.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

What it led to 1

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Transistors per microprocessor Latest: 58.2B transistors (2021) Source: Our World in Data