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While the idea of cleverly using silicon–germanium (SiGe) and silicon (Si) strained-layer epitaxy to
practice bandgap engineering of semiconductor devices in the highly manufacturable Si material system
is an old one, only in the past decade has this concept become a practical reality. The final success of
creating novel Si heterostructure transistors with performance far superior to their Si-only homojunction
cousins, while maintaining strict compatibility with the massive economy-of-scale of conventional Si
integrated circuit manufacturing, proved challenging and represents the sustained efforts of literally
thousands of physicists, electrical engineers, material scientists, chemists, and technicians across theworld.
In the electronics domain, the fruit of that global effort is SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (SiGe
HBT) BiCMOS technology, and strained Si/SiGe CMOS technology, both of which are at present in
commercial manufacturing worldwide and are rapidly finding a number of important circuit and system
applications. As with any new integrated circuit technology, the industry is still actively exploring device
performance and scaling limits (at present well above 300 GHz in frequency response, and rising), new
circuit applications and potential new markets, as well as a host of novel device and structural
innovations. This commercial success in the electronics arena is also spawning successful forays into
the optoelectronics and even nanoelectronics fields. The Si heterostructure field is both exciting and
dynamic in its scope.
The implications of the Si heterostructure success story contained in this book are far-ranging and will
be both lasting and influential in determining the future course of the electronics and optoelectronics
infrastructure, fueling the miraculous communications explosion of the twenty-first century. While
several excellent books on specific aspects of the Si heterostructures field currently exist (for example, on
SiGe HBTs), this is the first reference book of its kind that ‘‘brings-it-all-together,’’ effectively presenting
a comprehensive perspective by providing very broad topical coverage ranging from materials, to
fabrication, to devices (HBT, FET, optoelectronic, and nanostructure), to CAD, to circuits, to applications.
Each chapter is written by a leading international expert, ensuring adequate depth of coverage, upto-
date research results, and a comprehensive list of seminal references. A novel aspect of this book is
that it also contains ‘‘snap-shot’’ views of the industrial ‘‘state-of-the-art,’’ for both devices and circuits,
and is designed to provide the reader with a useful basis of comparison for the current status and future
course of the global Si heterostructure industry. |
