Center for Circuit System Solutions

The collaborative environment of the FCRP creates unique opportunities for cross-disciplinary research within and among centers. At this time, all six FCRP centers are collaboratively focused on the following four topics: carbon electronics, memory, network connectivity and 3D.

• Carbon-based electronics represent one of the most promising post-CMOS technologies. Several projects within our proposed Circuits and Modules Center propose to explore techniques to build logic and analog functionality with these nascent components. Within C2S2 we are demonstrating logic functions, analog circuits and local interconnects from carbon nanotube FETS (CNFETs) and graphene.
• Memory requirements will continue to increase for future integrated system applications. C2S2 has focused extensively on determining the scaling limits of existing static and dynamic embedded memory technologies and has worked collaboratively with the MSD and FENA to understand the memory technologies that will soon emerge to fundamentally change how we will want to build the corresponding circuits and modules.
• Network connectivity is quickly becoming the performance and power bottleneck as the scale and complexity of integration continues to increase. We are collaboratively participating with other centers to explore innovative communication techniques and protocols to system architectures, circuits and device technologies.
• 3D integration has been identified as a critical challenge that calls for a concerted effort among all of the FCRP centers. Working collaboratively with the other FCRP centers, C2S2 has a specific focus to contribute models, analyses and circuits that address the signal integrity aspects of 3D integration.