ABSTRACT
The revolution in the semiconductor industry, a subset of the electronics industry, began in 1947 with the fabrication of bipolar devices on slabs of polycrystalline germanium. The unique properties of the variety of semiconductor materials have enabled the development of a wide variety of ingenious devices that have literally changed our world. Device engineers are most concerned with methods of size down scaling. The semiconductor industry has been so successful in providing continued system performance improvement year after year that the Semiconductor Industry Association has been publishing roadmaps for semiconductor technology. Semiconductor transport in the nanoscale region has approached the regime of quantum transport. One question that becomes important in nanoscale devices is the treatment of the incoherent scattering process itself. These processes not only destroy the electron phase but may also change its energy and/or momentum. The chapter also presents the key concepts discussed in this book.
