A realistic assessment of the prospect that silicon be replaced by other materials for IC application

Abstract

Silicon is the most significant material in the semiconductor industry, and the whole semiconductor industry is established on silicon materials. Silicon accounts for about a third of the value of the material used to make the entire wafer. However, with the development of the semiconductor industry and integrated circuit chips, the requirements for semiconductor materials are also increasing. In some application scenarios, silicon is gradually unable to meet peoples higher requirements. For example, in high-frequency applications, the characteristics of silicon may be limited. At higher frequencies, the conductivity of silicon may not be ideal, leading to signal delay and performance loss. Therefore, finding alternative materials for silicon has become one of the current research topics for scientists, in order to solve some problems that silicon cannot solve under specific conditions. In this article, we mainly explore the characteristics and advantages of carbon nanotubes, gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide materials to analyze the feasibility of these materials replacing silicon in the field of integrated circuits.