R&D

The authors conclude: “Our results indicate that most modern integrated circuits may have been unintentionally overdesigned for reliablity, and that it is possible to design faster integrated circuits with higher operating voltage without sacrificing functional reliability. Although issues such as power management, shallow junction formation and so on remain and must be addressed, our findings allow a relaxation of the speed-reliability constraint that effectively removes oxide breakdown as a fundamental obstacle to continued scaling of silicon integrated circuits.”

Manufacturing a typical chip weighing 2g (grams) uses 1.6kg of fossil fuel, 72g of chemicals and 32kg of water, according to research published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology by researchers from the United Nations University.