Performance benchmarks for Si, III–V, TFET, and carbon nanotube FET - re-thinking the technology assessment methodology for complementary logic applications

Aspiring emerging device technologies (e.g. III-V, CNFET, TFET) are often targeted to outperform Si FETs at the same off-state current (I_off) and supply voltage (V_dd). We present a new device technology assessment methodology based on energy-delay optimization which treats I_off and V_dd as “free variables”, and bounded by constraints due to device variation and circuit noise margin. We show that for each emerging device (III-V, CNFET, TFET), there is a corresponding and different optimal set of I_off and V_dd, and an optimal energy-delay. Today´s best-available III-V and CNFET can outperform the best Si FET by 1.5-2x and 2-3.5x, respectively. Projected into the 10nm gate length regime, III-V on-Insulator, CNFET, and TFET are 1.25x, 2-3x, and 5-10x (for FO1 delays of 0.3ns, 0.1ns, and 1ns respectively) better than the ITRS target at the same gate length.