Topic summary
Process node
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Semiconductor device fabrication.
Feature size
Early semiconductor processes had arbitrary names for generations (viz., HMOS I/II/III/IV and CHMOS III/III-E/IV/V). Later each new generation process became known as a technology node or process node, designated by the process' minimum feature size in nanometers (or historically micrometers) of the process's transistor gate length, such as the "90 nm process". However, this has not been the case since 1994, and the number of nanometers used to name process nodes (see the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors) has become more of a marketing term that has no standardized relation with functional feature sizes or with transistor density (number of transistors per unit area).