Emerging research logic devices

Presents an an assessment of new field-effect transistor, resonant tunnel device, single-electron transistor and quantum cellular automata technologies. The goal of this article is to provide technical assessments of new logic technologies. We attempt to "cast a broad net" to gather in one place alternative concepts for logic that would, if successful, substantially extend the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) beyond CMOS. The discussions provide some detail regarding device operation principles, advantages, challenges, maturity, and current and projected performance. The scaling of CMOS device and process technology, as it is known today, is projected to continue (7-nm physical channel length) by 2019. The grand challenge, then, is to invent and develop one or more new technologies that will extend the scaling of information-processing technologies through multiple generations beyond 2019. Such new technologies must meet certain fundamental requirements and possess certain compelling attributes to justify the very substantial investments that are necessary to build a new infrastructure.