Advanced Silicon Microelectronics/ULSI
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Archived Viewpoints
2009
2008
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December/January:
2008: The Year in Review
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2007
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2007: The Year in Review
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The Dielectric Effect: Necessary Materials for the 45-nm Node and Beyond
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NAND and PRAM Memory Developments
Recent Developments: Nanoident's Plastic IC Plant -
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2006
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2006: The Year in Review
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Recent Developments: Consensus about Future 450-mm Wafers | Japanese Activities
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2005
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2005: The Year in Review
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Automotive Electronics Update
Recent Developments: Business News -
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Strain Engineering: The New Buzz in Advanced Silicon Processing
2004
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2004: The Year in Review
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Semiconductor Device Developments
Recent Developments: Silicon Optoelectronics -
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2003
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December/January:
2003: The Year in Review
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November:
Etching and Deposition
Recent Developments: New Transistor Structures -
October:
Recent Developments: Lithography Developments | Recent Activity | Near-Term Switches | The Roadmap
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ALD: Moving Ahead in a Sluggish Market
Commercial Development Parameters: The EU's MEDEA Program
2002
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2002: The Year in Review
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Notes from the IEDM
Recent Developments: Micron and Hynix: Still Talking -
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2001
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2001: The Year in Review
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Recent Developments: Lithography Developments | Wafer Makers Feeling the Pinch
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2000
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2000: The Year in Review
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Transmeta: Raising the MPU Bar
The Technology in Brief: New Ideas for Smaller Transistors -
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1999
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1999: The Year in Review
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Before August 1999, the Explorer service was called TechMonitoring, and Viewpoints were TechLinks.
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July:
Speech Recognition Goes Low-Cost
Recent Developments: Companies in the News -
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1998
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1998: The Year in Review
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Market Development: Semiconductor Equipment Investments in 1998
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After the DRAM Crash: Embedded Memory Systems
Recent Developments: More News on Copper Interconnects -
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1997
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December/January:
1997: The Year in Review
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November:
Copper Interconnects into Production
Commercial Development Parameters: Listening to the Experts -
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1996
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December/January:
1996: The Year in Review
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Cleaning Processes in Chip Fabrication | Supplying the Semiconductor Industry
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December/January:
1995: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 1996
About Advanced Silicon Microelectronics/ULSI
July 2008
Integrated circuits have, since their commercial introduction in 1961, become the enabling technology for virtually all modern data-transfer and storage operations, from electrically controlled domestic appliances to complex telecommunications networks. The dramatic progress from silicon chips containing only a few semiconductor junctions to today's state-of-the-art circuits containing millions of transistors has resulted from the evolutionary refinements in microfabrication processes and materials and the development of a system and software infrastructure to take full advantage of these devices.
Ultra-large-scale integration generally refers to today's leading-edge chip densities, although even higher levels of integration are already in development. The spread of IC-based systems into every facet of modern life is limited at the one extreme by the economic feasibility of providing electronically controlled functions and at the other by the technological limits on the quantity of data that researchers can manipulate. At the same time, higher integration levels are reducing the cost of processing power (cost per operation or instruction).
Observers have historically predicted the development of future generations of integrated circuits with fair accuracy, based on projecting constant, incremental improvements in both technology and economies of scale. These development cycles—which Moore's law (for Gordon Moore of Intel) embodies—have held fast for the 30 or so years that the semiconductor industry has been in existence. But more recent observations indicate that these cycles are gradually shortening, challenging the assumption that current technology will continue to yield to research and development in a predictable way. Pessimistic commentators suggest the approach of a technology "wall" defined by the smallest features that can be controllably etched to form individual transistors. However, so far, the ingenuity of semiconductor scientists appears far from exhausted. Novel technologies, new materials, and creative chip architectures will likely emerge to continue the advancement of integrated circuits.