Semiconductor Innovation: Future Engineers Will Build the Smallest Devices for the Greatest Impact

By Lori Scott, Senior Director of Marketing, Intel Foundry

At Intel Foundry, we believe the future of technology is being shaped not just by devices, but by the engineers who design them. Semiconductors sit at the center of major transformations today including artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and advanced connectivity. Sustaining this pace of innovation requires more than new lithography or device architectures — it requires a workforce ready to think across boundaries and collaborate deeply. For university students, this moment represents an opportunity to step into a field where ideas can shape entire industries.

In her talk “Semiconductor Innovation: The Smallest Devices for the Greatest Impact,” Myung-Hee Na, Vice President of Systems and Technology Research at Intel Foundry, shared insights with university students at the 2026 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) Circuit Insights series. Progress is no longer driven by isolated breakthroughs in materials or process nodes. Instead, it depends on co-optimization across disciplines — from materials and devices to circuit design, packaging, architecture, software, and systems. This shift is broadening the role of engineers to span the full technology stack.

Three key takeaways from Myung-Hee's presentation include:

Key technology transitions: Traditional planar transistors gave way to fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs), and now to gate-all-around (GAA) transistor architectures such as RibbonFET, enabling better control, performance, and power efficiency at advanced nodes. PowerVia backside power delivery, lithography, and advanced interconnect innovations are reshaping how chips are designed and manufactured. Looking ahead, the industry is also exploring new channels beyond silicon and 3D architectures such as 2D channels and complementary field-effect transistor (CFET).

Design technology co-optimization (DTCO) solutions: Cross-disciplinary skills are now essential for engineers. Device architecture, routing strategy, power delivery, thermal behavior, and workload requirements must be considered together. Designers are critical partners in defining technology definitions through DTCO.

AI, power, and sustainability challenges: Compute demand is growing faster than historical scaling trends, while energy consumption and thermal limits are becoming increasingly important constraints for systems built today. As the industry expands to meet rising demand, innovation is needed "everywhere, every front, and all at once.” From new architectures, 3D integration, advanced packaging, and tighter cross-layer co-optimization — all are aimed at improving system efficiency. Myung-Hee also highlighted the environmental impact of semiconductor manufacturing, and the need to balance performance with sustainability.

In her closing remarks, Myung-Hee emphasized that no single person, discipline, or company can meet the challenges ahead alone. The most meaningful advances will come from collaboration across academia and industry working together with shared purpose. Sustaining this momentum depends on attracting and developing the next generation of talent to advance the future of semiconductor innovation.

Learn more about Intel Foundry technologies at intel.com/foundry. Explore career opportunities at intel.com/life-at-intel.