A perspective on CMOS technology trends

Integrated circuit technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, driven by the requirements of new applications for electronics of higher performance at ever lower cost. The attributes of CMOS technology in a ULSI environment are an ideal match to these requirements; thus CMOS is becoming the ubiquitous integrated circuit technology. The main feature of CMOS is the existence of complementary n- and p-channel transistors, which results in circuit configurations with virtually zero steady-state current, and consequently low power dissipation. Although CMOS is conceptually a circuit technology, this has implications for fabrication and layout, as well as for functional partitioning in the circuit design environment and test. These considerations are reviewed with special attention to those areas, such as test, latchup, and the design environment, where technical problems are substantial.