Impacts and Limitation of New Generation Semiconductor Materials on Energy Efficiency and Frequency: Application for CPU and FPGA Technologies

Tian Xiao

doi:10.54097/7jp3h147

Authors

Tian Xiao

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/7jp3h147

Keywords:

Semiconductor materials, Wide band-gap, FPGA architecture, Energy efficiency, Frequency scaling.

Abstract

The silicon-based complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology has been making progress in computing performance for the past decades. The modern central processing unit (CPU) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) architectures are constrained by fundamental limitations caused by material properties, such as short-channel effects, latency in interconnections, and the distribution of heat density. As the operating frequency reaching to the 3–5 GHz and the thermal dissipation reach the physical maximum, the innovations of material become essential for future performance improvements. This paper reviews and analyzes the new-generation semiconductor materials, wide band-gap gallium nitride (GaN), ultra-wide band-gap (UWBG) gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃), and molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), which influence the energy efficiency, switching behavior, and design for CPUs and FPGAs. The wide band-gap materials provide outperformance breakdown fields, lower switching loss, and high-temperature stability, which directly improve the FPGAs’ voltage regulation and responses. The MoS₂ offers thinner channels, electrostatic gate control, and the back-end-of-line (BEOL) integration compatibility, providing a design direction for further ultra-scale single-chip FPGAs.

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