Intel Foundry Unveils The Thinnest GaN Chiplet For Power And Logic

Intel Foundry has created the thinnest gallium nitride chiplet in the world. The new hardware measures just 19 micrometers thick, which is roughly a fifth of the width of a human hair. This tiny component represents a major shift in how computer parts are made. The manufacturer announced (via Wcctech) that it has found a way to successfully combine traditional silicon logic circuits directly onto the same power-focused material.

Usually, these two elements sit on completely separate chips. By putting them together, its design aims to save physical space and reduce wasted energy in a variety of future applications.

Bringing power and computing together

Gallium nitride, commonly called GaN, is excellent at handling high voltages and running at high temperatures. It performs much better than standard silicon when it comes to raw power delivery. However, regular silicon is still needed for digital processing and basic logic. In the past, companies had to use two different chips to get the best of both worlds.

Now, Intel has printed both materials on a single 300-millimeter wafer using a 30-nanometer process. Because the power hardware and the logic controllers are merged, the chip can manage its own electrical flow without waiting for instructions from an outside source. The company achieved this by thinning down the silicon base to an incredible degree.

It managed to integrate digital blocks like inverters and ring oscillators right alongside the power components. This removes the need for a separate controller chip, keeping the entire footprint small and highly responsive.

Why this matters for future hardware

This new design leads to incredible speed and efficiency. Testing shows the circuits can switch on and off in just 33 trillionths of a second. The layout also successfully blocks high voltages up to 78 volts without any electrical leakage. Its single-chip approach dramatically lowers the amount of power lost when signals travel between separate components.

Since the new hardware runs smoothly even at 150 degrees Celsius, it is a perfect match for crowded servers. These chips will likely show up in future electric vehicles, radio systems, and artificial intelligence data centers where space is limited and reliable power is a priority. By proving that this method works consistently across a full wafer, Intel showed that it can actually mass-produce these parts.

The tech industry requires high-volume manufacturing to make new ideas stick, and this combination chip seems ready for the task.