ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the silicon (Si) heterostructure industry is reshaping the global communications infrastructure, which is in turn dramatically reshaping the way life of planet Earth will transpire in the twenty-first century and beyond. As wonderful as Si is from a fabrication viewpoint, from a device or circuit designer’s perspective, it is hardly the ideal semiconductor. Silicon–germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductoris the obvious ground-breaker of the Si heterostructures application space in terms of moving the ideas of our field into viable products for the marketplace. The Si heterostructure field is both exciting and dynamic in its scope. A complicating factor in SiGe technology terminology results from the fact that most, if not all, commercial SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor technologies today also contain standard Si complementary metal oxide semiconductor devices to realize high levels of integration and functionality on a single die.
