Published: 2012-07-10 15:47:13
A wafer technology known as silicon-on-insulator, or SOI, represents the future of microprocessor design.
In SOI-based chip design, a transistor's silicon junction area is placed on top of an electrical insulator, typically silicon oxide. By thus eliminating the junction capacitance between the transistor and the silicon substrate itself, the transistor is able to operate much more quickly. Moreover, it can operate with as little as one-third the power requirements of a typical transistor on a standard silicon wafer.
