How do you "shrink" electronic components, such as transistors, resistors and diodes?
Semiconductors are fabricated using process technologies. The invention of these technologies has led the shrinking transistor sizes that have so greatly benefited the electronics industry. They have been shrinking so fast that the rate has actually been exponential, following Moore's law since their invention. In 1970, manufacturing processes reached the 10 µm node. In 2013, we are moving below 22 nm. At over 450 times smaller, you can see that you can do so much more with a chip than you could in 1970 with the same size.



But what is process technology? Put simply, a process is a lot like a recipe. Many steps are performed to process a silicon wafer until individual packaged circuits are the result. Many mature processes are more than 100 steps. The silicon process has been an enormously valuable research topic and there are many resources to start learning. When a process technology is advanced, allowing smaller feature sizes, we say that process is shrunk. That is the actual word that process scientists and engineers use. When a process is shrunk there is usually at least some advancement in the photolithography stage, allowing smaller details to be patterned. But many steps may be affected by a process shrink since it is such a complicated process. 

Who needs to know? Surprisingly, few people need to understand process technology, and most electrical engineers can remain largely uninformed about it without it affecting their careers. ASIC developers and researchers who design devices to be fabricated must understand the design rules imposed by the process, but don't necessarily need to know the details of manufacturing, although this knowledge certainly gives them an edge. Of course, the process engineers must have detailed understanding, and the process researchers must have more detailed understanding still. 

Whats next? Moore's law is unsustainable for silicon processes. We are already approaching the limits of silicon because of physical limitations. Its possible that quantum computing will allow us to continue making computing smaller and more efficient. In the other direction, researchers are finding new uses for silicon: micro- and nano- electromechanical systems MEMS/NEMS. These devices open up applications that are impossible with electronics alone, and give credence to predictions of fantastic scifi-like ideas such as nanobots.