Microelectronics
Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre-scale or smaller. These devices are typically made from semiconductor materials. Many components of a normal electronic design are available in a microelectronic equivalent. These include transistors, capacitors, inductors, resistors, diodes and (naturally) insulators and conductors can all be found in microelectronic devices. Unique wiring techniques such as wire bonding are also often used in microelectronics because of the unusually small size of the components, leads and pads. This technique requires specialized equipment and is expensive.
Digital integrated circuits (ICs) consist of billions of transistors, resistors, diodes, and capacitors.[1] Analog circuits commonly contain resistors and capacitors as well. Inductors are used in some high frequency analog circuits, but tend to occupy larger chip area due to their lower reactance at low frequencies. Gyrators can replace them in many applications.
As techniques have improved, the scale of microelectronic components has continued to decrease[citation needed]. At smaller scales, the relative impact of intrinsic circuit properties such as interconnections may become more significant. These are called parasitic effects, and the goal of the microelectronics design engineer is to find ways to compensate for or to minimize these effects, while delivering smaller, faster, and cheaper devices.
Today, microelectronics design is largely aided by Electronic Design Automation software.
The mechanism(s) of electronic transport is a key field of microelectronics research and development, especially for such Electronic Design Automation, which can be diffusive, ballistic, and quantum hopping. According to the Rode's Model by Daniel Rode at the Bell Labs[2][3] and the Tang-Dresselhaus Theory by Shuang Tang and Mildred Dresselhaus[4] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the transport mechanism(s) of the three regimes can all be detected by observing the maximum value of entropy carried per electron through measurement of the thermopower. [5][6][7][8]
See also
- Digital electronics
- Electrical engineering
- Kelvin probe force microscope
- Macroelectronics
- Microscale chemistry
- Nanoelectronics
References
- Veendrick, H.J.M. (2011). Bits on Chips. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-61627-947-9. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15759799W/Bits_on_Chips/
- ^ Shamieh, Cathleen (2015-07-27). Electronics for dummies (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ. ISBN 9781119117971. OCLC 919482442.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Rode, Daniel (1970). "Electron mobility in direct-gap polar semiconductors". Physical Review B. 2: 1012. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.2.1012.
- ^ Rode, Daniel (1975). "Low-field electron transport". Semiconductors and Semimetals. 10: 1–89. doi:10.1016/S0080-8784(08)60331-2.
- ^ Tang, Shuang; Dresselhaus, Mildred (2014). "New Method to Detect the Transport Scattering Mechanisms of Graphene Carriers". arXiv:1410.4907.
- ^ Tang, Shuang (2018). "Extracting the Energy Sensitivity of Charge Carrier Transport and Scattering". Scientific Reports. 8: 10597. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-28288-y.
- ^ Xu, Dongchao (2019). "Detecting the major charge-carrier scattering mechanism in graphene antidot lattices". Carbon. 144: 601–607. doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2018.12.080.
- ^ Tang, Shuang (2022). "Inferring the energy sensitivity and band gap of electronic transport in a network of carbon nanotubes". Scientific Reports. 12: 2060. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06078-x.
- ^ Hao, Qing (2019). Transport Property Studies of Structurally Modified Graphene (Report). Arlington, VA: Defense Technical Information Center.
