Philosophy & Scope
2001 Advanced Research Workshop
Future Trends in Microelectronics:
the Nano Millennium
June 24-29, 2001
Ile de Bendor, France

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Philosophy of FTM Conferences
Our civilization is destined to be based
on electronics. For better or worse. Ever since the invention of
the transistor and especially after the advent of integrated circuits,
semiconductor devices have kept expanding their role in our life. Electronic
circuits entertain us and keep track of our money, they fight our wars
and decipher the secret codes of life, and one day, perhaps, they will
relieve us from the burden of thinking and making responsible decisions.
Inasmuch as that day has not yet arrived, we have to fend for ourselves.
The key to success is to have a clear vision of where we are heading in
these turbulent times. Identifying the scenario for the future evolution
of microelectronics presents a tremendous opportunity for constructive
action today. A free-spirited debate between the leading professionals
in the Industry, Government, and Academia is the main purpose of the planned
Workshop. The celebrated Si technology has known a virtually one-dimensional
path of development: reducing the minimal size of lithographic features.
This dramatic evolution has both led us to the threshold of nano-technology
and at the same brought about doubts regarding future development. Our
crystal ball is muddy. This is going to be the nano millennium… but how
about femto-electronics? There are clearly physical limits but can we be
reasonably sure that electronics will not dip below 1 nm in the next 1000
years?
New electronic materials, most powerful
enabler of new technologies, will naturally be a central theme in the program.
The evolution of semiconductor electronics has always been intimately connected
with advances in material science and technology. Differentiating from
usual materials meetings our workshop will discuss materials prospects
and fundamentals in the context of future technologies.
The first revolution in electronics, which replaced
vacuum tubes with transistors, was based upon doped semiconductors and
relied on newly discovered methods of growing pure crystals. The early
semiconductors could not be properly termed “doped” - they were just dirty.
Today, semiconductors routinely used in devices are cleaner (in terms of
the concentration of undesired foreign particles) than the vacuum of vacuum
tubes. Subsequent evolution of transistor electronics has been associated
with the progress in two areas: (1) miniaturization of device design rules,
brought about by advances in the lithographic resolution and doping by
ion implantation, and (2) development of techniques for layered-crystal
growth and selective doping, culminating in such technologies as MBE and
MOCVD, that are capable of monolayer resolution of doping and chemical
composition. Of these two areas, the first has definitely had a greater
impact in the commercial arena, whereas the second has been mainly setting
the stage for the exploration of device physics. These roles may well be
reversed in the future. Development of new and exotic lithographic techniques
with a nanometer resolution will be setting the stage for the exploration
of various physical effects in mesoscopic devices, while epitaxially grown
devices (especially heterojunction transistors integrated with optoelectronic
elements) will be gaining commercial ground. When (and whether) this role
reversal will take place, will be determined perhaps as much by economic
as by technical factors. It is anticipated that the lateral miniaturization
progress may face diminishing returns when the speeds of integrated circuits
and the device packing densities will be limited primarily by the delays
and power dissipation in the interconnection rather than individual transistors.
Further progress may then require circuit operation at cryogenic temperatures
or heavy reliance on optical interconnections. Implementation of the latter
within the context of silicon VLSI may usher in hybrid-material systems
with heteroepitaxial islands of foreign crystals grown on Si substrates.
All these anticipated developments are likely to be heavily dependent on
the progress of material science and techniques for epitaxial growth of
semiconductor layers. However muddy our crystal ball may be regarding the
future trends in microelectronics, one trend appears to be clear: the device
designer of tomorrow will be thinking in terms of multilayer structures
defined on an atomic scale.

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Scope and Topics for Discussion
(neither exhaustive nor exclusive)
-
What is the technical limit to shrinking devices?
Is there an economic sense in pursuing this limit? In the memory market?
In the microprocessor market?
-
What kind of research does the silicon industry need
to continue its expansion? Integrated systems?
-
What is the technical limit to shrinking devices?
Is there an economic sense in pursuing this limit? In the memory market?
In the microprocessor market?
-
What kind of research does the silicon industry need
to continue its expansion? Integrated systems?
-
What are the anticipated trends in lithography? 13nm
EUV and beyond? Limits? Modeling? Materials? Throughputs? Or, it's time
to go for non-lithography?
-
The wiring challenge. Beyond the one-shot solution
Cu? Optical or superconductor wiring?
-
Will wide-area electronics be integrated with VLSI?
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What are the limits to thin film transistors?
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Do we need three-dimensional integration? SOI?
-
What are the prospects and constraints of universal
wafer bonding?
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To what extent can we trade high speed for low power?
Is adiabatic computing in the cards? Ultra-low power electronics, a matter
of scaling ?
-
What is happening in the evolution (or revolution?)
of systems and architectures ?
-
Optical interconnects; and hopeful impetus to architecture
revolution ?
-
Where are the big stake market pulls and pushes for
new semiconductor technologies? 3D displays? Human-machine interfaces?
-
Nanoelectronics. Where is it heading? We can make
quantum-effect devices; can we make them broadly useful? Can we get around
problems like critical-biasing? wiring? stochastic fluctuations? large
scale integration? Resonant Tunneling, Single Electronics?
-
An architecture revolution (or a second von Neumann)
required?
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Is quantum computing more than just a mathematical
exercise ? Can we have or do we need long-range coherence? Quantum cellular
automata?
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Non-lithographic fabrication. Promising alternatives?
Broadened horizon? or hopeless pursuits?
-
How to answer the DARPA call for "trillion transistors
on a chip"? Challenges and/or fundamental problems? Single-electronics?
-
Telecom. Photonic networking, the obvious solution?
Zero switching network? Are PDH, SDH, and ATM fundamentally flawed and
limited?
-
LEO satellite network and satellite-on-wafer, a new
cause for rethinking of the fiber-optics system ?
-
Telecom and computer convergence, implications? network
computers? New pushes for speed and bandwidth from 3D TV, digital photography,
and virtual reality ?
-
Plastic fibers, and tipping the balance of GaAs vs.
InP?
-
Are there green pastures beyond the semiconductor
technologies? What can we expect from combinations with superconducting
circuits? Molecular devices? Plastic transistors and polymer optoelectronics?
Can we hope for bioelectronics with self-produced designed cells? Any prospect
for DNA computing? DNA assisted self assembling and packaging?
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Biotech and microelectronics chips combination? Chip-in-brain,
doable but unacceptable?
-
Is there a need for (possibility of) integrating
compound semiconductor IC's into Si VLSI? What are the merits and prospects
of hybrid schemes, such as heteroepitaxy, wafer bonding and packaging?
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What are the most attractive system applications
of optoelectronic hybrids? Camcorders? LED-CMOS or LCD-CMOS Projection
TVs? Large-area imagers and printers?
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What are the possible implications of opto-electro-microwave
interactions?
-
Satellite-on-wafer, radar-on-chip, feasible? desired?
minor distraction or big stake?
-
What can we expect from photonic bandgap structures?
Is "Photonic Computer" still a realistic hope or just a dismissible fantasy?
Could or should "photonics replacing electronics" ever happen?
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Progress in widegap semiconductor technologies, electronic
and photonic. What is happening in narrow gap semiconductors? What are
the current status and prospects of cooling technologies. Are intersubband
devices a viable alternative? What are the potential applications of the
unipolar laser?
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What are current problems and ultimate goals in optical
disk memories? Automotive electronics? Potential market?
-
Changed roles of industrial, government and academic
researchers.

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