ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview on major developments in electronics that took place and led to the current status of semiconductor electronics. It reviews some of the major milestones of the development of semiconductor electronics. Today, the Silicon Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (Si MOSFET) is the backbone of semiconductor electronics. The operation of electronic circuits relies on devices with the ability to either amplify signals or to switch between the on-state and the off-state. An important issue is that MOSFETs should not only be small but also fulfill certain targets concerning the electrical performance. Continued scaling and the resulting increase of the switching speed of MOSFETs gave rise to significant improvements of computer power and processor performance. The improved MOSFET designs add new features to the transistor but still resemble the structure of the classical MOSFET with one gate above the Si channel between source and drain.
