Emerging Nanoelectronic Devices

Preface

Continued dimensional and functional¹ scaling of CMOS² integrated circuit technology is driving information processing³ systems into a broadening spectrum of new applications. Many of these applications are enabled by performance gains and/or increased complexity realized by scaling. Because dimensional scaling of CMOS eventually will approach fundamental limits, several new alternative information processing devices and microarchitectures for existing or new functions are being explored to sustain the historical integrated circuit scaling cadence and reduction of cost/function in future decades. This is driving interest in new devices for information processing and memory, new technologies for heterogeneous integration of multiple functions (a.k.a. “More than Moore”), and new paradigms for systems architecture.

This book is based on the ITRS Emerging Research Device (ERD) International Technical Work Group's efforts over more than ten years to survey, research, and assess many of these new devices. As such, it provides an ITRS perspective on emerging research nanodevice technologies and serves as a bridge between CMOS and the realm of nanoelectronics beyond the end of CMOS dimensional and equivalent functional scaling. (Material challenges related to emerging research devices are addressed in a complementary ITRS chapter entitled Emerging Research Materials.)

An overarching goal of the ERD is to identify, assess, and catalog viable new information processing devices ...