Thoughts on Possible Future Charge-Based Technologies for Nano-Electronics

Scaling of silicon-based devices cannot continue indefinitely. As a result, various groups have been working on replacements for conventional CMOS. The most close to production-worthy of these include the carbon-based options of graphene (planar single layer sheets of graphite), and carbon nanotube technologies, and also compound semiconductor-based tunnel fets (TFETs). These new devices can, in principle, replace silicon in logic, analog, memory and RF applications. Work has begun to understand these beyond CMOS devices, and circuit capabilities, to determine performance compared to conventional silicon processes.