Transistors, small semiconductor-based switches that control the flow of electricity, are central components of all electronic devices, from computers to smartphones, wearables, sensors and smart appliances.

The company, along with others, is pursuing a new paradigm for cramming more transistors on chips—building up.

In a major breakthrough, IBM revealed the world’s first semiconductor chip technology built on a sub-1 nanometer chipmaking process. For comparison, the process uses transistor features smaller than the width of a DNA strand,

Simulations show which 2D transistor designs best control leakage as devices shrink, helping guide future chip scaling below todays limits.