The progress of silicon chips and single electron circuits

Large scale silicon chip in the microelectronics industry is standardized on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit architecture, based on the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). The present state of the art is a 256 M bit memory chip with a minimum feature size of 250 nm or a microprocessor chip with more than 10 million transistors and a minimum feature size of 200 nm. The growth has been possible through continuous advances in material, lithography, ion implantation and etching technology, leading to a steady decrease in the minimum feature size of the electronic devices used by integrated circuits. (A.B.)