Christopher Auth is an American electrical engineer and semiconductor technology expert at Intel Corporation, where he serves as vice president of technology development and director of advanced transistor development, overseeing innovations in transistor architecture and chip manufacturing processes. He was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2015 for his pioneering contributions to strained silicon transistor technology, which has advanced the performance and efficiency of CMOS transistors in modern integrated circuits.

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Auth's career at Intel has focused on pushing the boundaries of semiconductor scaling, including key roles in developing high-k metal-gate transistors and strain-enhanced designs that enabled smaller, more powerful chips at nodes such as 45 nm. More recently, he has led the development of groundbreaking technologies originally planned for Intel's 20A process node, including RibbonFET—a nanosheet transistor architecture that replaces the FinFET design for improved gate control and up to 15% better energy efficiency—and PowerVia, a back-side power delivery system that relocates power interconnects to the wafer's underside, reducing interference and boosting performance by approximately 6%. Although 20A was deprioritized in 2024, these innovations are now being integrated into the 18A node, with manufacturing readiness targeted for the second half of 2025. They aim to position Intel ahead of competitors like TSMC and Samsung in transistor density and power management, supporting the company's transition to a foundry model while addressing historical delays in nodes such as 10 nm and 7 nm.

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His work underscores Intel's risk-tolerant approach to semiconductor evolution, balancing aggressive timelines with stepping-stone technologies to mitigate complexity in adopting multiple architectural shifts simultaneously. Auth's efforts have been instrumental in maintaining Intel's legacy of transistor leadership, from early strained-silicon advancements to next-generation solutions that enable denser, more efficient computing hardware essential to AI, data centers, and consumer electronics.