Moore's Law has driven major parts of the semiconductor industry for more than four decades. Going down from micrometer dimensions to below 100nm has primarily been enabled by the progress in lithography and dry etching. Maintaining Moore's Law beyond 45nm will require significant innovations also on the material side. After squeezing the traditional silicon dioxide to the limits high-k gate dielectrics and metal gates are currently maturing. Traditional floating gate memory technologies are coming to their limits as well and industry is intensively looking into emerging memory concepts base on new materials and physical effects. This article reviews the significance of material innovations for two application areas, mobile phones and automotive electronics.
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