1.1 Integrated Circuits

• The goals of electronic materials science in integrated circuits are to understand the principles of device operation and the process used to form the devices in the semiconductors so that well-designed circuits can be made with controlled, reproducible procedures
• Electronics engineers and process engineers - the distinction is blurred in material science - must interact in design so that the structure can be produced with a high yield of chip fabricated without a fatal flaw
• Semiconductor goals is to make the devices as small as possible to decrease carrier travel distances and pack as many devices as possible onto a given area
• Gallium arsenide has the advantage that its electrons have a higher mobility than electrons in silicon by a factor of 6
• Silicon, on the other hand, is less expensive and is easier to process