Full-Chip Power/Performance Benefits of Carbon Nanotube-Based Circuits

Abstract

As a potential alternative to the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, many researchers are focusing on carbon-nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) for future electronics. However, existing studies report the advantages of CNFETs over CMOS at the device level by using small-scale circuits, or over outdated CMOS technology. In this paper, we propose a methodology of analyzing CNFET-based circuits and study its impact at the full-chip scale. First, we design CNFET standard cells and use them to construct large-scale designs. Second, we perform parasitic extraction of CNFET devices and characterize their timing and power behaviors. Then, we perform a full-chip analysis and show the benefits of CNFET over CMOS in 45-nm and 20-nm designs. Our full-chip study shows that in the 45-nm design, CNFET circuits achieve a 5.91×/3.87× (delay/power) benefit over CMOS circuits at a density of 200 CNTs/μm. In the 20-nm design, CNFET achieves a 6.44×/3.01× (delay/power) benefit over CMOS at a density of 200 CNTs/μm.