Gate-all-around nanosheet transistors
A transistor is a switch: a gate turns the flow of current through a channel on and off. In the newest chips the channel is a stack of thin silicon sheets with the gate wrapped all the way around each one, which controls the current better than the earlier fin-shaped design (FinFET).
TechSpot, Dec 2025How far from your life: You can get it now, though it may not be common yet.
Independently sourcedFrom lab to your life
Why it’s on step 4
- 1Lab discovery
- 2Working prototype
- 3Real-world testing
- 4Approved or on sale
- 5Everyday life
The rule
A regulator approved or cleared it where approval applies (the FDA, the EMA, a CE mark), or it is sold to the public or to customers beyond a trial.
- Intel launched Core Ultra Series 3, its first chips made on its 18A process with its new RibbonFET transistors. Pre-orders for laptops opened on January 6, 2026, with more than 200 designs expected. 91mobiles, Jan 2026
The short version
What you need to know
- Why it matters
Chips can do the same work on less power. TSMC expects its first nanosheet process to use 25% to 30% less power than the one before for the same performance.
TechSpot, Dec 2025- Is it really nano?
Truly nano
The channels are nanosheets, and wrapping the gate around them is the whole design.
Samsung, 30 June 2022- Where you’ll find it
In the newest phone, laptop and AI chips, starting in 2025 and 2026.
TechSpot, Dec 2025- Who’s behind it
Samsung (since 2022), Intel (18A) and TSMC (N2)
On the record
Every step, dated
Newest first. Company-reported means the only source so far is the company itself.
- On sale
Intel launched Core Ultra Series 3, its first chips made on its 18A process with its new RibbonFET transistors. Pre-orders for laptops opened on January 6, 2026, with more than 200 designs expected.
91mobiles, Jan 2026 - Production
TSMC said volume production of N2, its first process with nanosheet transistors, began in the last quarter of 2025 as planned, at its new Fab 22 near Kaohsiung.
TechSpot, Dec 2025 - ProductionCompany-reported
Samsung started making chips on its 3-nanometer process, the first to use gate-all-around transistors.
Samsung, 30 June 2022
Who makes it
The companies
- TSMNYSETSMC
Began volume production of N2, its first process with nanosheet transistors, in late 2025.
We track:Nanosheet transistors
- 005930KRXSamsung Electronics
Began making chips with gate-all-around transistors in 2022, and sells quantum dot TVs.
We track:Nanosheet transistorsQuantum dot TVs
- INTCNasdaqIntel
Its Core Ultra Series 3 laptop chips, launched in January 2026, are its first built on the Intel 18A process.
We track:Nanosheet transistors
Sources
Where every line comes from
Each source with the passage, word for word, that backs what we wrote.
- TechSpot, Dec 2025
It is the company's first implementation of gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors
- Samsung, 30 June 2022
Samsung’s proprietary technology utilizes nanosheets with wider channels, which allow higher performance
- 91mobiles, Jan 2026
The launch introduces the company’s first compute platform built on the new Intel 18A manufacturing process.
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