report
8.2.5 Additional demand for research

For decades, enhanced performance of integrated circuits has been achieved largely by shrinking transistors and wires to pack more power into smaller space. Now major problems are arising due to heat generation, an increasing number of defects and basic principles of physics.

Introduction of new material systems as well as new device architecture, in addition to continuous process control improvement are needed to break the scaling barriers. The industry is already looking beyond conventional silicon technology and moving to the world of nanoscale structures.

Additional research is needed to develop alternate strategies to extending the current CMOS platform such that performance and energy efficiency requirements are fulfilled. An important aspect is adding functionality and creating integrated circuits that can be adapted to specific applications. Development of fault-tolerant architectures is also needed because the number of defects increases inevitably as the component features shrink to the nanometre scale.

Such huge research effort has been devoted to the development and optimization of the CMOS platform that new technologies will first have to be compatible with CMOS. The main challenges are ensuring the practicality of integrating components based on widely differing technologies and materials, and introducing innovative schemes for cost-effective volume manufacturing

Finally, looking beyond the 2020 timeframe, new ideas and disruptive technologies need to be explored in order to create completely new computing devices capable that could eventually replace CMOS technology. This topic is discussed in more detail in ICT sector report "Beyond CMOS".