Limits on Silicon Nanoelectronics for Terascale Integration

TLDR

Silicon semiconductor technology has advanced exponentially over four decades, yet concerns about approaching limits and the challenge of interconnecting wires for nanoelectronics in terascale integration remain. Such massive‑scale integration is feasible assuming the development and economical mass production of double‑gate MOSFETs with ~1 nm gate oxide, ~3 nm silicon channel, and ~10 nm channel length. Analysis of fundamental, material, device, circuit, and system limits shows silicon technology still has enormous potential to achieve terascale integration of more than 1 trillion transistors per chip.

Abstract

Throughout the past four decades, silicon semiconductor technology has advanced at exponential rates in both performance and productivity. Concerns have been raised, however, that the limits of silicon technology may soon be reached. Analysis of fundamental, material, device, circuit, and system limits reveals that silicon technology has an enormous remaining potential to achieve terascale integration (TSI) of more than 1 trillion transistors per chip. Such massive-scale integration is feasible assuming the development and economical mass production of double-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors with gate oxide thickness of about 1 nanometer, silicon channel thickness of about 3 nanometers, and channel length of about 10 nanometers. The development of interconnecting wires for these transistors presents a major challenge to the achievement of nanoelectronics for TSI.