On May 4, Intel announced that it will use a type of 3-D transistor in its future microprocessors and will begin production later in 2011. The first production 3-D transistor, named Finfet (fin-shaped field-effect transistor), was co-invented by Academia Sinica Academician Chenming Hu and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkley in the late 1990s.

The new FinFET 22-nanometer transistors are faster and more power-efficient than current computer processors and represent the most drastic shift in semiconductor technology in 50 years, according to Intel.

Professor Hu and colleagues Jeffrey Bokor and Tsu-Jae King Liu originally developed the 3-D transistor design at UC Berkeley in response to a US government call for smaller transistors. They first made the FinFET transistors in 1999 and subsequently presented them to several companies. Industry was immediately interested in the design and saw its potential, but it took over a decade to get the new design out of the lab and ready for volume production. Intel’s recent announcement suggests that the transistors will soon be ready for the market.

The current “planar” (2-D) transistors have powered all electronic devices such as mobile phones and computer processors for many decades since the beginning of the integrated circuits, and the new 3-D FinFET transistors represent a huge rm 35-01 change for the semi-conductor industry.

"I wrote the technical part of the research proposal on a flight from the US to Asia, proposing a manufacturable 3-D transistor to solve the problems that 2-D transistors would run into beyond 25nm. The 2-D transistors cannot be made much smaller, cheaper, faster, and would use too much power," said Dr. Hu.

"The FinFET structure will allow future transistors to be made smaller and smaller for many more years. This is good news for consumers all over the world and good news for Asia and Taiwan in particular, where the strong semiconductor and electronics industries contribute significantly to the economy.  In fact, TSMC has been an industry leader in FinFET research since the early 2000s," he added.

The new chips are expected to run up to 37% faster according to an Intel press release. Other big semiconductor chip makers including TSMC are expected to adopt the new technology within the next few years.

Dr. Hu is currently the TSMC Distinguished Chair Professor of Microelectronics in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the Chief Technology Officer of TSMC from 2001 to 2004. He has received many awards during his career including, most recently, the 2011 US Semiconductor Industry Association's University Research Award for leadership in the innovation and improvement of the electronics industry and the (US) national economy.