Trends in CMOS technology and application development

The development trends in CMOS technology are discussed. It is clear that the trend in putting more and more transistors and memory bits on a chip will continue. The integration level will soon reach a point where the characteristics of a system are determined by the functional components on a single chip. There is likely to be detours on the technology roadmap, each driven by a different emphasis on the system functions implemented on a chip. While scaling CMOS transistors for density and performance will continue, there will be plenty of opportunities for improvement in system performance without pushing CMOS transistors to their limits. © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.