Evaluation of circuit performance degradation due to CNT process imperfection

As the Si scaling return rapidly diminishes, active research efforts on emerging materials and devices are made worldwide seeking post-Moore solutions [1,2]. While preliminary results show great potentials to improve circuit performance by adopting new materials including carbon nanotubes (CNTs)[3], one critical challenge that deserves more attention is that the material maturity and process quality of almost all these new materials are far from the state-of-the-art silicon technology. Without the tremendous efforts and investment to develop silicon technology in the past decades, these materials may never achieve the level of process quality in Si technology. Hence, a fair evaluation and projection of these new materials must take into consideration the material and process imperfection.