Sony Buys GAA Patents from Intel

Sony purchased 35 patents from Intel in November and December last year with regard to the gate-all-around (GAA) transistor technology as an advanced semiconductor process technology.

The GAA can be defined as a next-generation transistor structure capable of further refining chips. Each semiconductor chip incorporates an extremely large number of transistors and the importance of the role of the gate as a current regulator increases as the size of the transistor decreases.

At present, it is Samsung Electronics that has the finest GAA technology in the global semiconductor industry and TSMC and Intel are following it. As a result of the purchase of the patents, Sony improved its ranking to sixth.

According to industry sources, the patent acquisition is to apply the patents to its future products. Given the current scope of business of Sony, those are likely to be applied to image sensors. “Although the application is unlikely right now, the patents may become useful after further development of microfabrication techniques,” one of them explained, adding, “It seems that Sony bought the patents to make its future products more competitive.”