As is commonly known, all silicon transistors drain a device's batteries by using both active power and leakage power. It is not so widely appreciated that leakage has become a major concern for IC designers who work with submicron (65 nm and below) process technologies. In fact, leakage can account for as much as 30 to 50 percent of total IC power consumption which is one reason why you have to charge your laptop and cell phone so often. If you compress a vein in your arm, this restricts the flow of blood. Oddly enough, the opposite is true of silicon: The more you compress it, the more easily electrons can move through it. This is why transistors in modern microchips are continuously exposed to pressures of up to 10,000 ATM (nearly 147,000 PSI). Unfortunately, squeezing the semiconductor also increases its leakage current.
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