Prospects for silicon being replaced by other materials in integratedcircuit applications

Abstract

Currently, silicon is the most widely used semiconductor material. However, in recent years, the development of integrated circuits has encountered more and more limitations, among which the physical characteristics of single-crystal silicon materials are an important reason. With the expansion of integrated circuit scale and the continuous reduction of manufacturing processes, silicon has gradually reached its physical limit. At the same time, silicon has a higher calorific value and a higher performance loss. Therefore, people are actively seeking alternatives to silicon in integrated circuits. This paper reviews the characteristics of three new semiconductor materials, graphene, silicon carbide, gallium nitride, and current research on their applications. Silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials have shown outstanding performance in power-integrated circuits, while graphene has many applications. However, they still have many defects before being used on a large scale. In short, in integrated circuit applications, when new materials replace silicon, many problems remain to be solved.