ABSTRACT
Silicon is the semiconductor that has dominated the electronic industry for over 40 years. While the rst transistor fabricated in Ge and III-V semiconductor material compounds may have higher mobilities, higher saturation velocities, or larger bandgaps, silicon devices account for over 97% of all microelectronics [1]. The main reason is that silicon is the cheapest microelectronic technology for integrated circuits. The reason for the dominance of silicon can be traced to a number of natural properties of silicon but more importantly, two insulators of silicon, SiO2 and Si3N4, allow deposition and selective etching processes to be developed with exceptionally high uniformity and yield.
