Nanoarchitectonics for Heterogeneous Integrated Nanosystems

Based on projections of the International Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), the continued scaling of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices will face severe technical challenges. Among the most critical are power dissipation and device-level variabilities that will make circuit design very difficult. Potential device-level solutions that take advantage of new functional materials, self-assembly processes, low dissipation nanoscale devices, and architectures that aim in sustaining Moore´s law beyond the ITRS are discussed in this paper. Two potential paths forward are clear at this point. One path is to continue increasing chip-scale functional throughput by looking at new functional materials at atomic and molecular levels for assembly into new low-power devices with different logic state variables that can better tolerate variabilities. Another distinct approach is to increase chip-scale functionality by exploiting the heterogeneous integration of materials, such as compound semiconductors on silicon as enabled by the unique features in nanoscale epitaxy and self-assembly on a common substrate. This paper will discuss some possible methods forward in maintaining scaled CMOS and going beyond the roadmap.