From:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010221071842.htm
Source: Georgia Institute Of Technology
(http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/)
Date: Posted 3/5/2001
A Map For The Future: Fundamental Limit Defines Future Opportunities For
Silicon Nanoelectronics
Electronics researchers have defined a fundamental limit that will help
extend a half-century's progress in producing ever-smaller microelectronic
devices for increasingly more powerful and less expensive computerized
equipment.
The fundamental limit defines the minimum amount of energy needed to perform
the most basic computing operation: binary logic switching that changes a 0
to a 1 or vice-versa. This limit provides the foundation for determining a
set of higher-level boundaries on materials, devices, circuits and systems
that will define future opportunities for miniaturization advances possible
through traditional microelectronics -- and its further extension to
nanoelectronics.
"Future opportunities for gigascale integration (chips containing up to a
billion devices) and even terascale integration (chips containing trillions
of devices) will be governed by a hierarchy of physical limits," said James
D. Meindl, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of
the Microelectronics Research Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
"We now know the fundamental limit on microelectronics and where we are
relative to it."
Meindl explained the limits and their implications on February 16 in a
seminar on nanotechnology at the 167th annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Francisco.
Meindl and collaborator Jeffrey A. Davis reported in the October issue of
IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits that the fundamental limit depends on
just a single variable: the absolute temperature. Based on this fundamental
limit, however, engineers can derive a hierarchy of limits that are much
less absolute because they depend on assumptions about the operation of
devices, circuits and systems.
The researchers studied the fundamental limit from two different
perspectives: the minimum energy required to produce a binary transition
that can be distinguished, and the minimum energy necessary for sending the
resulting signal along a communications channel. The result was the same in
both cases.
The fundamental limit, expressed as E(min) = (ln2)kT, was first reported 50
years ago by electrical engineer John von Neumann, who never provided an
explanation for its derivation. (In this equation, T represents absolute
temperature, k is Boltzmann's constant, and ln2 is the natural log of 2).
Though this fundamental limit provides the theoretical stopping point for
electrical and computer engineers, Meindl says no future device will ever
operate close to it. That's because device designers will first bump into
the higher-level limits -- and economic realities.
For example, electronic signals can move through interconnects no faster
than the speed of light. And quantum mechanical theory introduces
uncertainties that would make devices smaller than a certain size
impractical.
Beyond that is a more important issue -- devices operating at the
fundamental limit would be wrong as often as they are right.
"The probability of making an error while operating at this fundamental
limit of energy transfer in a binary transition is one-half," Meindl noted.
"In other words, if you are operating just above the limit, you'll be right
most of the time, but if you are operating just below it, you'd be wrong
most of the time."
What does this mean for electronic and computer engineers?
"We can expect another 10 to 15 years of the exponential pace of the past 40
years in reducing cost per function, improving productivity and improving
performance," Meindl said. "There will be lots of problems to solve and
inventions that will be needed, just as they have over the past four
decades."
He expects the world's use of silicon will follow the pattern set by its use
of steel. During the second half of the 19th century, steel use increased
exponentially as the world built its industrial infrastructure. Growth in
steel demand fell after that, but it remains the backbone of world
economies, though other materials increasingly challenge it.
"In the middle of the 21st century, we are going to be using more silicon
than we are now, by far," he predicted. "There will be other materials that
will come in to replace it, like plastics and aluminum came in to push steel
out of certain applications. But we don't know yet what will replace
silicon."
Though the limits provide a final barrier to innovation, Meindl believes
economic realities will bring about the real end to advances in
microelectronics.
"What has enabled the computer revolution so far is that the cost per
function has continued to decrease," he said. "It is likely that after a
certain point, we will not be able to continue to increase productivity. We
may no longer be able to see investment pay off in reduced cost per
function."
Beyond that point, designers will depend on nanotechnology for continuing
advances in miniaturization.
"What happens next is what nanotechnology research is trying to answer," he
said. "Work that is going on in nanotechnology today is trying to create a
discontinuity and jump to a brand new science and technology base.
Fundamental physical limits encourage the hypothesis that silicon technology
provides a singular opportunity for exploration of nanoelectronics."
The research has been sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency
under Contract F33615-97-C1132, the Semiconductor Research Corporation under
Contract HJ-374 and Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Georgia
Institute Of Technology for journalists and other members of the public. If
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Institute Of Technology as the original source. You may also wish to include
the following link in any citation:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010221071842.htm
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