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Past, present, and future
BOOKS & MEDIA UPDATE Principles of Inorganic Materials Design
Past, present, and future
John N. Lalena and David Cleary John Wiley & Sons (2005), 560 pp. ISBN: 0-471-43418-3 $99.95 / £54.50 / 83.30
Rising demand for advanced materials has led to a reexamination of the interface between chemistry, engineering, and materials science, as well as increasing recognition of the need to involve chemistry and chemical engineering more directly in solving materials-related problems. While most textbooks focus on describing and categorizing inorganic materials and preparative methods, this book covers topics relevant to the design of new materials.
Dilute Nitride Semiconductors Mohamed Henini Elsevier (2005), 640 pp. ISBN: 0-08-044502-0 $215 / £134 / 195
Lasers operating at 1.3 µm and 1.55 µm are important light sources in communications, but current InGaAsP/InP lasers have several problems. This book reviews the advances made in dilute nitrides and evaluates future trends. Leaders in the field cover growth and processing, experimental characterization, theoretical understanding, and device design and fabrication.
Magnetic Materials and Technology K. O’Grady and H. Muraoka (eds.) Institute of Physics (2005), 350 pp. ISBN: 0750310189 $135 / £80
This book consists of contributions from speakers at the 6th Oxford-Kobe workshop on Magnetic Materials and Technology. It presents a review of the state-of-the-art in magnetic materials, devices, and applications. Divided into six sections, it covers magnetic recording technology, soft magnetic materials (including amorphous and nanocrystalline materials), magnetoelectronics, magneto-optics, novel materials, and characterization.
Expert Graduate Undergraduate
A new collection of contributions from experts does a good job of balancing the basic and advanced aspects of silicon technology from its historical development to future applications, says Meikei Ieong. The book Silicon: Evolution and Future of a Technology, edited by Paul Stiffert and Eberhard F. Krimmel, is a collection of personalized survey articles from experts in the field. The number of articles discussing silicon technology has increased exponentially in the last three decades, reaching more than a quarter of a million papers. It is difficult to find a text that can cover all aspects of silicon. This book does a reasonably good job of balancing the basic and advanced subjects. However, there is a slight bias toward a European view rather than the global view of silicon history. The book begins with an introductory chapter, Silicon In All Its Forms, by James R. Chelikowsky. This chapter covers 40 years’ history of the role of silicon in the understanding of electronic materials. It presents, in a concise form, the historical progression of the fundamental understanding of silicon through a discussion of energy bands, surfaces, clustering, and quantum dots. The references at the end of this chapter are quite valuable for those who are interested in the theoretical aspects of silicon as a material. The rest of the book is divided into nine parts. The first three deal with the history and application of silicon in three solid forms: single-crystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous. The discussions of epitaxy and thin films are geared more toward device applications. Readers will be disappointed if they are looking for information about the material itself or aspects of its processing. The chapter on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is timely. The SOI substrate is now a popular topic thanks to its use in the manufacture of microprocessor chips. Defects, doping, and impurities are covered in the next three parts. The fundamental concepts are explained quite well. However, the materials are a bit outdated. This is understandable, however, as silicon technology is advancing so rapidly. Readers will surely need to look elsewhere for up-to-date information on these topics.
The focus on devices in Part VII includes power devices and integrated circuits, with more detailed discussion on the future of complementary-metal-oxidesemiconductor field-effect transistors (CMOS-FETs), as well as lithography. Both basic and state-of-the-art concepts and technologies are covered well. Researchers and engineers in the microelectronics industry will find this section especially useful. However, the discussion of chemical and biosensors based on silicon, although an important topic, is rather brief. The next section, which deals with compound semiconductors, seems a little bit out of place. While the chapter is very well written, why would anyone buy a book on silicon to learn about compound semiconductors? Perhaps it would be more germane if there were some discussion of how to integrate compound semiconductors with silicon technology. The last part of the book explores the opportunities for silicon technology in new fields, such as quantum computing, carbon nanotubes, systems for ambient intelligence, and ‘semiconductors with intelligence’. The Paul Siffert and Eberhard F. Krimmel (eds.) Silicon: Evolution and Future of a Technology Springer (2004), 549 pp., ISBN 3-540-40546-1 $139 / £77 / 99.95
advancement and low cost of silicon technology makes this ubiquitous material the ideal platform for such new ideas. These chapters can surely bring new excitement into what is a mature technology. I would recommend this book to graduate students and scientists who need easy access to silicon-related topics. However, with the rapid pace of silicon technology, practitioners may find this book less valuable than articles in recent conference proceedings and journals. Meikei Ieong is a senior manager, exploratory device integration at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York.
April 2005
55
Past, present, and future
John N. Lalena and David Cleary John Wiley & Sons (2005), 560 pp. ISBN: 0-471-43418-3 $99.95 / £54.50 / 83.30
Rising demand for advanced materials has led to a reexamination of the interface between chemistry, engineering, and materials science, as well as increasing recognition of the need to involve chemistry and chemical engineering more directly in solving materials-related problems. While most textbooks focus on describing and categorizing inorganic materials and preparative methods, this book covers topics relevant to the design of new materials.
Dilute Nitride Semiconductors Mohamed Henini Elsevier (2005), 640 pp. ISBN: 0-08-044502-0 $215 / £134 / 195
Lasers operating at 1.3 µm and 1.55 µm are important light sources in communications, but current InGaAsP/InP lasers have several problems. This book reviews the advances made in dilute nitrides and evaluates future trends. Leaders in the field cover growth and processing, experimental characterization, theoretical understanding, and device design and fabrication.
Magnetic Materials and Technology K. O’Grady and H. Muraoka (eds.) Institute of Physics (2005), 350 pp. ISBN: 0750310189 $135 / £80
This book consists of contributions from speakers at the 6th Oxford-Kobe workshop on Magnetic Materials and Technology. It presents a review of the state-of-the-art in magnetic materials, devices, and applications. Divided into six sections, it covers magnetic recording technology, soft magnetic materials (including amorphous and nanocrystalline materials), magnetoelectronics, magneto-optics, novel materials, and characterization.
Expert Graduate Undergraduate
A new collection of contributions from experts does a good job of balancing the basic and advanced aspects of silicon technology from its historical development to future applications, says Meikei Ieong. The book Silicon: Evolution and Future of a Technology, edited by Paul Stiffert and Eberhard F. Krimmel, is a collection of personalized survey articles from experts in the field. The number of articles discussing silicon technology has increased exponentially in the last three decades, reaching more than a quarter of a million papers. It is difficult to find a text that can cover all aspects of silicon. This book does a reasonably good job of balancing the basic and advanced subjects. However, there is a slight bias toward a European view rather than the global view of silicon history. The book begins with an introductory chapter, Silicon In All Its Forms, by James R. Chelikowsky. This chapter covers 40 years’ history of the role of silicon in the understanding of electronic materials. It presents, in a concise form, the historical progression of the fundamental understanding of silicon through a discussion of energy bands, surfaces, clustering, and quantum dots. The references at the end of this chapter are quite valuable for those who are interested in the theoretical aspects of silicon as a material. The rest of the book is divided into nine parts. The first three deal with the history and application of silicon in three solid forms: single-crystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous. The discussions of epitaxy and thin films are geared more toward device applications. Readers will be disappointed if they are looking for information about the material itself or aspects of its processing. The chapter on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is timely. The SOI substrate is now a popular topic thanks to its use in the manufacture of microprocessor chips. Defects, doping, and impurities are covered in the next three parts. The fundamental concepts are explained quite well. However, the materials are a bit outdated. This is understandable, however, as silicon technology is advancing so rapidly. Readers will surely need to look elsewhere for up-to-date information on these topics.
The focus on devices in Part VII includes power devices and integrated circuits, with more detailed discussion on the future of complementary-metal-oxidesemiconductor field-effect transistors (CMOS-FETs), as well as lithography. Both basic and state-of-the-art concepts and technologies are covered well. Researchers and engineers in the microelectronics industry will find this section especially useful. However, the discussion of chemical and biosensors based on silicon, although an important topic, is rather brief. The next section, which deals with compound semiconductors, seems a little bit out of place. While the chapter is very well written, why would anyone buy a book on silicon to learn about compound semiconductors? Perhaps it would be more germane if there were some discussion of how to integrate compound semiconductors with silicon technology. The last part of the book explores the opportunities for silicon technology in new fields, such as quantum computing, carbon nanotubes, systems for ambient intelligence, and ‘semiconductors with intelligence’. The Paul Siffert and Eberhard F. Krimmel (eds.) Silicon: Evolution and Future of a Technology Springer (2004), 549 pp., ISBN 3-540-40546-1 $139 / £77 / 99.95
advancement and low cost of silicon technology makes this ubiquitous material the ideal platform for such new ideas. These chapters can surely bring new excitement into what is a mature technology. I would recommend this book to graduate students and scientists who need easy access to silicon-related topics. However, with the rapid pace of silicon technology, practitioners may find this book less valuable than articles in recent conference proceedings and journals. Meikei Ieong is a senior manager, exploratory device integration at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York.
April 2005
55