Enabling the integrated circuits of the future

The incorporation of new materials into CMOS scaling has become a necessity. Our previous work in SiGe and III-V integration shows promise in allowing further materials integration for increased transistor density. However, a principal concern is that investment returns by further increasing transistor density will likely be negative for all but possibly one or two corporations, and may be negative for all. The innovation of incorporating III-V and other materials monolithically into silicon CMOS is now leading us into a pre-paradigm age in which metrics at the materials or device level are not sufficient to determine innovative value for CMOS+X combinations in the marketplace. Such an age is, by definition, a challenge for all organizations participating in the previous paradigm: research organizations, government funding agencies, and public and private corporations. Despite these challenging times, we list the likely characteristics of a new innovation path, and describe our efforts to follow it through research into `white space´ integrated circuits employing new materials and devices. Initially, we are designing novel integrated circuits, materials and processes incorporating GaN HEMTs, GaN LEDs, and InGaAs HEMTs monolithically into existing silicon CMOS foundry processes. A modular process flow is incorporated so that the new devices can be modeled and incorporated into the design kit for a foundry process, allowing us to leverage much of the existing silicon design and manufacturing infrastructure. Our initial focus is on the demonstration of wafer-level integration of III-V devices with foundry 0.18 μm CMOS devices on 200 mm wafers, and we report on the progress made in materials, device and circuit design towards this goal.