Moore’s Law and Radiation Effects on Microelectronics

Abstract: In 1965 Gordon Moore postulated that the number of components in an integrated circuit would double every 1-2 years. This trend still holds, making it one of the longest, sustained geometric progressions in the history of the industrialized world, enabling revolutions in computing and in virtually every aspect of technology that is enabled or enhanced by computing. Transistor dimensions have decreased from tens of microns to ~ 5 nm over this time period. In this presentation, I will discuss how Moore’s Law size and voltage scaling of transistors and integrated circuits have influenced transistor architectures and computing capabilities. The effects of Moore’s Law scaling on the vulnerability of microelectronics to ionizing radiation effects in near-Earth space and terrestrial applications will then be discussed in detail for past, present, and future generations of highly-scaled integrated circuit technologies.

Bio: Dan Fleetwood received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1984. He joined Sandia National Laboratories in 1984 as a Member of the Technical Staff. In 1990, he was named a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. Dan accepted a position as Professor of Electrical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in 1999. From 2003-2020 he served as Chairman of Vanderbilt’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. In 2009 he was named Olin H. Landreth Chair in Engineering. Dan is author or co-author of more than 600 publications on radiation effects, low frequency noise, and defects in microelectronic materials and devices. He received the 2009 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Merit Award, the society’s highest technical honor, and is a Fellow of IEEE, the American Physical Society, and the American Association of the Advancement of Science.