Published On: September 27, 2025

DALL·E The rapid progress of semiconductor technology is built on a simple principle: by scaling transistors down, more components can be packed into a chip, resulting in higher performance. Over the past half‑century, this strategy has delivered exponential growth in computing power, but it has also unleashed a hidden cost. As manufacturing processes have become more complex and factories have grown larger, the energy required to produce each wafer and to operate cutting-edge tools has risen significantly. Let us examine how the pursuit of smaller features and increased functionality influences the energy footprint of semiconductor manufacturing. Scaling’s Hidden Energy Burden The paradox of semiconductor scaling is that even as transistors have become more energy-efficient, the total energy required to manufacture chips has continued to rise. In the […]