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The drive to miniaturization

Following the introduction of silicon-based integrated circuitry over three decades ago, the integration density of such circuits has doubled every 12 to 18 months: this observation is known as Moore's law. For this historical trend to continue, significant challenges need to be overcome in several key technological areas. But for many of these challenges, there are at present no known solutions.

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Figure 1: Comparison of the timing of the technology nodes in the 1999 ITRS with those in the 1994 and 1997 roadmaps.
Figure 2
Figure 3: Projected equivalent oxide thickness (Teq.ox) of the silicon dioxide gate dielectric from the 1999 ITRS compared with that from earlier roadmaps.
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Figure 5: Schematic illustration of the ten-metal-level metal interconnect structure projected for the 35-nm technology node.

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Peercy, P. The drive to miniaturization. Nature 406, 1023–1026 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35023223

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