Challenges and opportunities of silicon technology in communications

As Microelectronic (ME) technology advances in speed of light. Ubiquitous computing (UC) is getting closer to reality. The UC dream with its multilife dimensions will be only there through advanced communication technologies (CT) and devices. The CTs are impacting several application areas and industries such as: wired and wireless communication, mobile computing, wearable computers, network of sensors, etc. These applications have been the driving forces behind the semiconductor industry and its multimillion transistors chips. They represent about 60% of the $200 billion semiconductor industry (2004). As the consumer´s demands increase especially in the wireless area and with the pressure of the market on the communication quality and variety, the challenges in the ME as enabling technology grew at several levels; devices, circuits, architectures, and algorithms. The ME has to respond to many expectations and needs. For instance, you can already use your mobile phone to browse the Web, take pictures, send email, and play games. But, you expect to have much better quality in the next generation, in addition, you expect to have enough gigabyte of memory to turn your mobile phone into huge photo albums and MP3 music players. In this talk several of the ME challenges will be discussed. Low power, noise tolerant, reliable, small, fast, and cheap are the main attributes microelectronic systems should have as enabling technology. These attributes requires new design techniques and methods in submicron technologies. At the system levels, systems-on-chip and reconfigurable systems are promising paradigms to meet the complexity challenges. The talk will also address the limitations and expectations of the microelectronic technologies.