CMOS in the new millennium

The VLSI industry is accelerating towards the end of scaling (bulk) CMOS. Near its scaling limit, a CMOS transistor could have a channel length of about 25 nm, a switching speed about three times as fast as a device of 100-nm channel length, and an f/sub T/ of about 250 GHz. However realization of this CMOS technology is far from certain due to the many technical difficulties that must be overcome. In the next few years, while the application of CMOS to RF will grow rapidly, performance of digital CMOS will saturate. While development towards 25-nm channel length will continue, CMOS development will also be focused on opportunities beyond scaling the bulk device.