ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews a variety of beyond-CMOS devices and a brief assessment of their potentials and challenges. Traditional technology innovation in the semiconductor industry is driven by CMOS scaling to achieve better device/system performance and economy of scale. Many beyond-CMOS devices were initially proposed to sustain this scaling trend known as More Moore. Materials with better transport properties and device structures with better electrostatics can help to extend CMOS scaling. Beyond-CMOS devices utilize new mechanisms for logic switches. The interconnect is an important part of any computational system. In CMOS circuits, the interconnect consumes a significant portion of total energy and is a critical limit in system speed. Benchmarking of beyond-CMOS devices shows that the interconnect is also a performance bottleneck for these devices. Memory and logic are two essential parts of any computational system. General-purpose computers are all based on a Von Neumann architecture with separate memory and logic units communicating through interconnects.
