ABSTRACT
Silicon is the semiconductor that has dominated the electronics industry for over 50 years. While the first 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 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 the deposition and selective etching processes to be developed with exceptionally high uniformity and yield.
