Review of Semiconductor Devices

Abstract

In an era which is dominated by an always faster and larger flow of information, microelectronics plays a major role. The building block of today’s microelectronics are semiconductor devices, which are used either as single components in a variety of applications (process controllers, antennas, sensors, radios, etc.,...) as well as in integrated circuits. Since the invention of the bipolar transistor in 1949, many new devices have been proposed and improved performances have been constantly achieved. Before this date, semiconductors were only used as thermistors, photodiodos and rectifiers. The advances in the field of semiconductor devices are the combined results of better understanding of the physical processes that underline the electrical behaviour of devices, of an improved handling of technological processes involved with the fabrication of the devices, of the mature knowledge of the chemical properties of the materials that are used, and of the combination of all these factors. In other words, electronics have been able to make big steps forward in the last few decades thanks to the progress in the physical, chemical and material sciences, as well as the development of new technological tools. The best example is given by the fact that we are currently able to put hundreds of thousands of devices onto a single chip, well into what is called very-large-scale integration (VLSI) [1].