Amorphous Semiconductors For Microelectronics

Stanford R. Ovshinsky

doi:10.1117/12.961066

12 March 1986 Amorphous Semiconductors For Microelectronics

Stanford R. Ovshinsky

Proceedings Volume 0617, Amorphous Semiconductors for Microelectronics; (1986) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961066
Event: O-E/LASE'86 Symposium, 1986, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

It is now clear that amorphous materials will be the basis of the next great advance in microelectronics. In this paper, I intend to show why the field of microelectronics is presently in a state of crisis, and therefore historically ripe for a basic new approach. I will discuss how our approach using amorphous semiconductors will not only solve the crisis but also spur a new revolution, with the potential of the one of almost 40 years ago. The solid-state revolution, which began in 1947 with the invention of the transistor, was made possible by the ability to make crystalline materials (at that time, germanium) sufficiently free of defects that substitutional dopants could overcome the background noise of other defects and control the electronic transport properties of the semiconductor. Since the early 1930's Bloch, Wilson, and others had laid a sufficient theoretical groundwork in semiconductors so that transistor action could be predicted, demonstrated, and understood even though the point contact transistor had many mysteries associated with it. Figure 1 shows that historical lever that moved the world, the first transistor.

Citation Download Citation

Stanford R. Ovshinsky "Amorphous Semiconductors For Microelectronics", Proc. SPIE 0617, Amorphous Semiconductors for Microelectronics, (12 March 1986); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961066

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