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To: THE WATSONYOUTH who wrote (218034)	11/30/2006 1:35:20 PM
From: pgerassi	Respond to of 275872

Dear WATSONYOUTH: It is the conducting channel length versus its width. The gate always is wider than the channel. Of course quantum effects are blurring that ratio from the linear relationship much larger devices have. Weird effects begin to happen. Most digital circuits are predicated on analog effects and not the stepwise quantum ones. Although current research is slowly allowing digital circuits to be made with stepwise quantum effects, we are not near large complex workings yet. So to keep easily understood analog effects as the basis you have to build the transistors around minimum sizes or simply try a bunch of different designs possible given the degree of accuracy inherent for each process. Those that give a reasonable approximation of that analog effect they need for the design team is what they use. It is of course further restricted to below a boundary in switching energy used and in leakage. The later is a big reason why channel length doesn't scale like it used to. In higher sized processes, it was a neligible effect wrt others. Now it is a biggie. And then there is channel and gate oxide thinness. And quantum tunneling is a much larger factor in them and that is highly voltage and geometry dependent. Everyone, including Intel, is dealing with this and it is not easy. So many thought that these would be strict barriers to further scaling. That workarounds were found that were both manufacturable and designable is a constant level of surprise to many including myself. We are all waiting for that breakthrough where it either destroys these problems or simply bypasses them entirely. Until then, we will have to deal with the complexities instead of the old simple rules. Pete