How Devices Are and Should Be Applied to Circuits

In the 1990s, when bulk complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology emerged as the dominant technology for semiconductor products, circuit engineers explored the following techniques to reduce integrated circuit (IC) power dissipation: using multithreshold devices in the same IC and using power gating technique to supply power to different circuit blocks of an IC. Scaled CMOS technology yields metal‐oxide semiconductor field‐effect transistor (MOSFETs) with the stack architecture that allows circuit blocks to have different threshold voltage values, which suppresses the energy dissipated by circuits. To replace the IC design methodology for conventional devices, such as the MOSFETs, leading scientists are investigating how emerging devices can advance circuit performance. For example, adders composed of carbon nanotube (CNT) transistors and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors have been demonstrated. It is anticipated that more such studies will be performed to confirm the feasibility of using such emerging devices in future low‐energy ICs.