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Logic devices (FETs) are the building blocks of semiconductor products. Today’s silicon chip can easily have billions of these logic devices. It is also in line with Moore’s law, and today’s semiconductor technology allows the possibility of packing more logic devices without impacting the total silicon area.
Semiconductor equipment and other semiconductor technologies have also played a key role in achieving the goal of fabricating innovative logic devices. Apart from this, both academia and industry have consistently provided novel ways to design logic devices for the future requirements of semiconductor products.
The impact of these logic devices on the overall semiconductor product-driven system is high and ranges from the technical to the business aspect. It is the primary reason the semiconductor design and manufacturing houses are always coming up with techniques to improve the efficiency of logic devices.
Performance: Logic devices directly impact the performance of the overall semiconductor products. The reason is the faster turn on/off time. To power performance-oriented silicon chips, underlying logic devices need to have the required characteristics that enable high performance. It is also the primary reason the industry is adopting next-gen FET devices.
Power: Several systems that do not require high-performing logic devices. Instead, they need a device that can work over different power profiles. It is usually the requirement of low-power semiconductor products. It is also where logic devices need to have smaller power footprints come into the picture and have been around for decades.
Area: The need to pack more logic devices will keep increasing due to the demand for faster processing. It is where logic devices play a crucial part and often have to evolve (technical features at the gate level) to cater to the next-gen processing demand while having minimal impact on the silicon area.
As the semiconductor industry moves towards the era where silicon chips might easily have trillions of logic devices, the need for next-gen logic devices that have minimal impact on the cost and time will grow too.
Logic devices also drive the business aspect of semiconductor products. It is in the form of products that get launched and what type of new features these products will have.
Product: New semiconductor products need to be at par with the predecessor products. It is only possible if the underlying semiconductor technology evolves as per the changing requirements. It requires advanced logic devices.
Customer: Consumer-friendly products require a good balance of internal architecture capabilities. It often ranges from response time to battery life. These two features are driven by the building blocks of the semiconductor products i.e. logic devices.
More than the semiconductor design, semiconductor manufacturing needs to invest more time and money to enable new logic devices. The majority of the investment eventually provides the next-gen solutions to the semiconductor industry at large. FinFET is one such example, which originated due to the cross-industry and academia efforts.
As the need to pack more transistors without affecting the time, area, and cost increases, the investment towards the research and development activities of the logic devices will have to increase too.
In the end, the semiconductor design and manufacturing companies will keep innovating to prepare themselves for the decades to come, and academia will also play a crucial role in promoting next-gen logic devices.
