>>As you can guess, most of us
only scratch the surface about the semiconductor industry trying to learn usually
for our monetary gain.This field is a little more than that. I'm discovering so many
interesting stories and developments in lithography and chip fabs that will have a
great impact in our future. <<
That's why it's such a fascinating area to cover. The technology (my forte) is much more closely tied to business success than it is in some other industries.
>>I value your writing because of your straightforward approach-its factual and
easy to understand. I wish I had the credentials to receive Solid State Technology
Magazine to read your articles there.(You have just written one in March
issue).Could you give us a little synopsis of that article?<<
I'm glad I've managed to explain the technology in a straightforward way. That's one of my big goals.
As far as Solid State Technology goes, I'm no longer there, having moved on to Semiconductor Online in mid-February. The March issue is probably the last to have my byline in it. A good university library probably has back issues of SST, or you can buy single copies from the publisher. I think the web page has more info. Or you can probably get copies of single articles via University Microfilms.
As I recall (I don't have my copy of SST yet, and misplaced my draft when I moved my office), the article you're referring to dealt with scaling issues for advanced transistors. Briefly, smaller transistors (below about .10 micron channel length) start to run into physical limitations because the insulator starts to "leak" electrons as it gets thinner. Too much leakage, and the switching behavior is lost. To maintain acceptable properties, new insulator materials are needed, but oxide (SiO2) is familiar and easy to work with. Other materials are likely to be much tricker, and require substantial R&D. Likewise, for very short channels, current from the source and drain electrodes starts to "bleed" into the gate region, causing the transistor's switching behavior to round off, rather than being sharp. (Difficult to explain without knowing your background.) New transistor designs are one way to solve this problem, new materials are another. Again, more R&D money is required. I don't like to recommend specific stocks--journalistic integrity and all that--but I'd advise anyone trying to pick semi stocks to look at R&D organizations and the company's ability to bring R&D advances to market. For the long term, the best engineers will win.
Thanks again for the rave reviews.
Katherine |
