New Paradigms in the Silicon Industry

The advances in silicon technology that have been the backbone of tremendous previous growth, was foreseen in 1965 when Gordon Moore published his famous prediction about the constant growth rate of chip complexity. And, in fact, it has repeatedly been shown that the number of transistors integrated into silicon chips has indeed doubled every 18 months. Increases in packing density, according to Moore's law, are driven by two factors: reductions in production costs and increases in chip performance. Another prominent example of the unstoppable pace of technology advancement, where new sources of momentum are able to maintain or accelerate a growth trend, was predicted by the author of this paper: the time required for the market to witness a doubling of the density of NAND flash memory has been maintained within the period of one year over each of the past seven years. The primary aim of this paper to present various possible paths to maintain the technology-scaling trend beyond the 20 nm node. As will be shown, these solutions include not only 3D (three-dimensional) technologies but also non-silicon technologies on a molecular scale. In addition, new applications, and new growth engines for the semiconductor industry will be provided from a fusing of separate technologies such as silicon-based IT (information technology) with new materials or even new concepts