Introduction

Abstract

The semiconductor electronics industry has experienced explosive growth since the invention of monolithic integrated circuits (ICs) in the early 1960’s. The continuous introduction of new products with enhanced performance, size, power, and cost characteristics has revolutionized existing markets as well as created new commercial opportunities. Consumer electronics is a good example of an older market that has grown in size and penetration through new opportunities offered by improvements in IC technology. Personal computers, the Internet, and mobile communications are some of the more noticeable examples of new mass technologies that progressed from technical feasibility to widespread use owing to the relentless progress in integrated circuit technology. Information generation, processing, communication, storage, and retrieval performed by electronic circuits have become ubiquitous in everyday life as well as in industrial environments. Both “traditional” and “high-tech” industries have come to depend on cost-effective information flow to enhance productivity and efficacy. Very few products are designed, manufactured, tested, distributed, and sold today without reliance on this information infrastructure.