Page 98 - Semiconductor For Micro- and Nanotechnology An Introduction For Engineers
P. 98
Chapter 3 The Electronic
System
Since the early days of discoveries on the nature of electrons, (we can
note in hindsight), the world hasn’t looked back. One notable laboratory
at Bell Laboratories, run by William Schockley, has brought us innumer-
able innovations to control and exploit the behavior of electrons in semi-
conductors, including the transistor, and establishing many of the key
ideas used in semiconductor circuits today that, upon reading in one sit-
ting, lets us amaze at how clear these pioneers already saw the end result.
Subsequent industrial innovations have not let us down, engineering ever
faster switching transistors and electronic circuits according to the famed
“law” of Gordon Moore, whereby miniaturization and speedup doubles
every one and a half years. The result: current laptop computers are as
powerful as the supercomputer of the author’s student days (but much
more reliable and comfortable to use!).
Chapter Goal Electrons move through crystals in special ways, and the mechanism is
dominated by quantum mechanics. The goal of this chapter is therefore to
introduce two topics:
Semiconductors for Micro and Nanosystem Technology 95
