Technology Options for Beyond-CMOS

Abstract

CMOS integrated circuit technology for computation is at an inflexion point. Although this is the technology which has enabled the semiconductor industry to make vast progress over the past 30-plus years, it is expected to see challenges going beyond the ten year horizon, particularly from an energy efficiency point of view. Thus it is extremely important for the semiconductor industry to discover a new integrated circuit technology which can carry us to the beyond CMOS era, so that the power-performance of computing can continue to improve. Currently, researchers are exploring novel device concepts and new information tokens as an alternative for CMOS technology. Examples of areas being actively researched are; quantum electronic devices, such as the tunneling field-effect transistor (TFET), and devices based on electron spin and nano-magnetics (spintronics). It is clear that choices will need to be made in the next 10 years to identify viable alternatives for CMOS by 2025. To prioritize and guide the research exploration in materials, devices and circuits, benchmarking methodology and metrics are being used. This talk will give an overview of the beyond CMOS device research horizon and the benchmarking of these devices for computation. A more detailed investigation of circuits based upon some promising beyond-CMOS devices will follow.