MOS Technology Drivers

The semiconductor industry has entered a new revolution where connectivity, applications, and an overall pervasive market drives the need for increased circuit density, improved performance, and a decrease in power dissipation. These issues are the backbone for some of the latest silicon technology advancements, including the integration of stress-enabled transistors and advanced silicon-on-insulator substrates. Future advancements may include multiple gated devices, high- gate oxides, and band-gap-tailored devices. This paper will review some of the early complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor reliability issues and solutions that have allowed this industry to flourish over the last 25 years. A discussion on how these past issues and new advances affect power versus performance is the framework and motivation of this paper.