Frequency and higher performance

The path of electronics has traditionally been characterized by miniaturization and increasingly higher frequencies to get better performance at lower price. Time and again designers have expressed doubts that electronics will deviate from its traditional course. How often Moore’s Law has been said to hit the wall! However, as of today Moore’s Law is in place though Moore himself feels that the end of the law is in sight. Equating higher frequencies with better performance was probably first challenged by Intel three-four years ago, and the Company opined that the future path to better performance was through multi-core designs and not higher frequencies. Today multi-core rather than higher frequency is used by processor designers to get more performance.

A recent development of interest to the designer is the progress made in the terahertz regime. It is possible to design future circuits to operate at terahertz frequencies. How shall designers build such circuits? Researchers at the University of Utah say that circuits can be designed to run at far-infrared (FIR) radiation instead of electricity. The FIR region lies between 0.1-10THz and has not yet been used for any application.

The University has designed an optical approach to generate terahertz radiation that shows laser-like properties, and believes this breakthrough will profoundly affect electronics design. However, before this comes about, new materials and structures appropriate for the terahertz era have to be designed because most of the traditional materials tend to be lossy. Silicon that forms the basis of semiconductor designs is found to be absorptive, as are some polymers and inorganic materials commonly used today. Waveguides for efficiently carrying terahertz waves are being developed, as are passive and active components. The University claims that metal films perforated with holes have been used as filters and have demonstrated great design flexiblity.

Commercial availability of these products may be five years away; however, the University is convinced that the path of electronics design will once again be headed toward higher frequencies for better performance.