Die shrink

With shrinking (of English shrink. Shrink, fade, even die shrink ) is called in the electronics scaling ( here: Decrease ) of a chip model by refined conductor structures.

One shrinks in a chip, the structure width, for example, of 90 nm to 65 nm, so it requires less operating voltage to the chip at the same processing speed to operate. Thus the power loss is reduced, which allows for higher operating frequencies with the same chip cooling. Another focus in the reduction of the structures is in the increase in the number of dies per wafer, to lower the production cost. Alternatively, more transistors can be accommodated, which can be realized more cores and larger caches on equal this for a shrink.

Practically resembles a shrink usually a complete redesign, as the components of a complex ICs, such as a processor, can not simply be a percentage decrease.

• Semiconductor Technology