In the last few years, the semiconductor industry has brought about a drastic revolution in the existing technology in order to realize a larger on-chip integration, enhance performance, increase operating speed, and decrease energy consumption. Delay and power consumption have become the most vital performance parameters of any digital circuit. One of the methods devised to achieve this is by scaling the feature size of a transistor. However, when the channel length is reduced beyond 45nm in metal-oxidesemiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) technology, it gives rise to perilous complications and challenges such as decreased gate control, short channel effect, increased power density, higher sensitivity to process deviation, higher manufacturing cost, and increased leakage current. This draws a limit on the transistor size and demands for new transistor structures and technologies to overcome the drawbacks. Technologies like benzene rings, single electron transistors (SET), Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA), and carbon nanotubes are slowly rising as alternatives to reduce the problems associated with CMOS. New technologies demand faster processors, smaller sizes, and less power consumption. Advances in 5G networks have increased the pressure to improve the battery life of smartphones, their performance, spectral efficiency, and many more. The potential to achieve these is the use of Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistors (CNTFETs). They have higher carrier mobilities and direct band gaps that enhance the band-to-band tunneling and optical properties. These features make CNTFETs suitable to be used in future novel electronic devices. Hence, this chapter focuses on the emerging and future trends of CNTFETs. The constructional aspects, features, types, designs, and applications of CNTFETs are dealt with in detail in the forthcoming sections of the chapter.
Keywords: CNTFET, CNTs, Chiral vectors, Dielectric materials, High K dielectrics, Short channel effects.
