Power-constrained CMOS scaling limits

The scaling of CMOS technology has progressed rapidly for three decades, but may soon come to an end because of power-dissipation constraints. The primary problem is static power dissipation, which is caused by leakage currents arising from quantum tunneling and thermal excitations. The details of these effects, along with other scaling issues, are discussed in the context of their dependence on application. On the basis of these considerations, the limits of CMOS scaling are estimated for various application scenarios.