--- title: This is the physical limit to how small we can make... description: Transistors have been shrunk to just a few nanometers, causing quantum tunneling where electrons pass through solid barriers even when transistors are off.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-physical-limit-to-how-small-we-can-make-computers-tryhiydqr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: This is the physical limit to how small we can make computers | daily.dev og:description: Transistors have been shrunk to just a few nanometers, causing quantum tunneling where electrons pass through solid barriers even when transistors are off.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-physical-limit-to-how-small-we-can-make-computers-tryhiydqr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TrYhIyDQr.png og:image:alt: This is the physical limit to how small we can make computers og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # This is the physical limit to how small we can make computers **[Tiff In Tech](https://daily.dev/sources/tiffintech)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Transistors have been shrunk to just a few nanometers, causing quantum tunneling where electrons pass through solid barriers even when transistors are off. Engineers solved this by redesigning chip architecture from flat gates to gate-all-around transistors that wrap completely around wires, physically trapping electrons and preventing leakage. Modern 3-nanometer chips represent precision engineering designed to contain quantum physics effects. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Entanglement Breakthrough Linking Cores of Atoms Could Scale Up Quantum Computers](https://daily.dev/posts/entanglement-breakthrough-linking-cores-of-atoms-could-scale-up-quantum-computers-gd5sryfat) · Singularity Hub · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#quantum-computing](https://daily.dev/tags/quantum-computing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-physical-limit-to-how-small-we-can-make-computers-tryhiydqr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"This is the physical limit to how small we can make computers","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-physical-limit-to-how-small-we-can-make-computers-tryhiydqr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-physical-limit-to-how-small-we-can-make-computers-tryhiydqr"},"datePublished":"2026-01-19T18:35:44.208Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T18:36:06.725Z","description":"Transistors have been shrunk to just a few nanometers, causing quantum tunneling where electrons pass through solid barriers even when transistors are off....","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SVSO96Ew_LU/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SVSO96Ew_LU/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Tiff In Tech","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Tiff In Tech","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--cw-MSz5l--/f_auto/v1724391415/logos/tiffintech","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tiffintech"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-physical-limit-to-how-small-we-can-make-computers-tryhiydqr","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"hardware,quantum-computing","timeRequired":"PT1M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"This is the physical limit to how small we can make computers","description":"Transistors have been shrunk to just a few nanometers, causing quantum tunneling where electrons pass through solid barriers even when transistors are off....","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SVSO96Ew_LU/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-01-19T18:35:44.208Z","duration":"PT1M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/TrYhIyDQr","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/SVSO96Ew_LU"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tiff In Tech","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tiffintech"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"This is the physical limit to how small we can make computers"}]} ```