Nanodevices for a 'More than Moore' world
Moore's Law - which holds that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit, and hence its processing power, doubles every 18 months - has been the guiding principal of chip design for almost half a century. But with physical limitations to further transistor scaling being reached, Moore's Law may have met its match. We are entering a 'More than Moore' world in which EU-funded researchers are playing an important role.
Since Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore described his theory in 1965, circuit designers have counted on the steady increase in transistor density to provide greater chip performance in ever smaller packages. Now, however, some of the physical constraints to transistor scaling - such as overheating, energy dissipation and resistance -mean that conventional semiconductor design approaches are unlikely to produce the same rate of progress.
And that is not the only challenge for more powerful and smaller electronic devices to be achieved. Moore's Law only deals with integrated circuits, such as the 'Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor' (CMOS) chips that live inside your PC, mobile phone or digital camera. A bulky array of additional discrete passive components - such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, antennas, filters and switches - interconnected over a printed-circuit board or two are still needed for your phone to make a call or your camera to take a photo.
For real miniaturisation, a different approach is required: one based on advanced nanotechnology that promises seemingly infinite possibilities and unlimited potential applications. By integrating new functionality using tiny nanostructures such asnanowires and nanomaterials (each tens of thousands of times thinner than a human hair) into CMOS chips, the 'More than Moore' approach means electronics can keep getting smaller, more powerful and more efficient. So small in fact that a computer in pill form could monitor health and deliver drugs inside the human body, or a complete smart home control system could be combined into a package about the size of a credit card.
'Nanostructures and nanowires have received much attention for future CMOS in recent years. Nowadays activities devoted to using nanostructures, especially nanowires, to create innovative "More than Moore" products are very promising,' says Dr Francis Balestra, the Director of the Sinano Institute of France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and a researcher at INP-Minatec in Grenoble.
- TAMS SEMICONDUCTOR LIMITED