The case for cryoelectronics

Operation of semiconductor electronic systems at low temperatures has advantages compared to room temperature operation. These include higher frequency of operation and increased switching speed resulting from increased carrier mobility and reduced resistances, greater reliability due to the reduced thermally activated degradation rate and higher packing density resulting from an increased heat removal rate, reduced feature size and device spacing and the use of smaller supply voltages. Operating temperature can be used with geometric device scaling for performance optimization.