The knowledge of fundamental silicon questions and all aspects of silicon technology gives the possibility of improvement to both initial silicon material and devices on silicon basis. The articles for this book have been contributed by the much respected researchers in this area and cover the most recent developments and applications of silicon technology and some fundamental questions. This book provides the latest research developments in important aspects of silicon including nanoclusters, solar silicon, porous silicon, some technological processes, and silicon devices and also fundamental question about silicon structural perfection. This book is of interest both to fundamental research and to practicing scientists and also will be useful to all engineers and students in industry and academia.
Since the 1997 publication of "Silicon Carbide - A Review of Fundamental Questions and Applications to Current Device Technology" edited by Choyke, et al., there has been impressive progress in both the fundamental and developmental aspects of the SiC field. So there is a growing need to update the scientific community on the important events in research and development since then. The editors have again gathered an outstanding team of the world's leading SiC researchers and design engineers to write on the most recent developments in SiC.
Includes within its scope, topics such as: studies of the structural, electrical, optical and acoustical properties of bulk, low-dimensional and amorphous semiconductors; and, interface properties, including the physics and chemistry of heterojunctions, metal-semiconductor and insulator-semiconductor junctions.
Silicon (Si) plays a significant role in the resistance of plants to multiple stresses including biotic and abiotic stresses. Silicon is also the only element that does not damage plants when accumulated in excess. However, the contribution of Si to plant growth has been largely ignored due to its universal existence in the earth's crust. From numerous intensive studies on Si, initiated in Japan about 80 years ago, Japanese scientists realized that Si was important for the healthy growth of rice and for stability of rice production. In a worldwide first, silicon was recognized as a valuable fertilizer in Japan. The beneficial effects of Si on rice growth in particular, are largely attributable to the characteristics of a silica gel that is accumulated on the epidermal tissues in rice. These effects are expressed most clearly under high-density cultivation systems with heavy applications of nitrogen. Si is therefore recognized now as an ''agronomically essential element'' in Japan.Recently, Si has become globally important because it generates resistance in many plants to diseases and pests, and may contribute to reduced rates of application of pesticides and fungicides. Silicon is also now considered as an environment-friendly element. The achievements of Si research in Japan are introduced in this book, in relation to soils, fertilizers and plant nutrition.
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a wide-band-gap semiconductor biocompatible material that has the potential to advance advanced biomedical applications. SiC devices offer higher power densities and lower energy losses, enabling lighter, more compact and higher efficiency products for biocompatible and long-term in vivo applications ranging from heart stent coatings and bone implant scaffolds to neurological implants and sensors. The main problem facing the medical community today is the lack of biocompatible materials that are also capable of electronic operation. Such devices are currently implemented using silicon technology, which either has to be hermetically sealed so it cannot interact with the body or the material is only stable in vivo for short periods of time. For long term use (permanent implanted devices such as glucose sensors, brain-machine-interface devices, smart bone and organ implants) a more robust material that the body does not recognize and reject as a foreign (i.e., not organic) material is needed. Silicon Carbide has been proven to be just such a material and will open up a whole new host of fields by allowing the development of advanced biomedical devices never before possible for long-term use in vivo. This book not only provides the materials and biomedical engineering communities with a seminal reference book on SiC that they can use to further develop the technology, it also provides a technology resource for medical doctors and practitioners who are hungry to identify and implement advanced engineering solutions to their everyday medical problems that currently lack long term, cost effective solutions. - Discusses Silicon Carbide biomedical materials and technology in terms of their properties, processing, characterization, and application, in one book, from leading professionals and scientists - Critical assesses existing literature, patents and FDA approvals for clinical trials, enabling the rapid assimilation of important data from the current disparate sources and promoting the transition from technology research and development to clinical trials - Explores long-term use and applications in vivo in devices and applications with advanced sensing and semiconducting properties, pointing to new product devekipment particularly within brain trauma, bone implants, sub-cutaneous sensors and advanced kidney dialysis devices
This book gives the first systematic and complete survey of technology and application of amorphous silicon, a material with a huge potential in electronic applications. The book features contributions by world-wide leading researchers in this field.
The role of design in the formation of the Silicon Valley ecosystem of innovation. California's Silicon Valley is home to the greatest concentration of designers in the world: corporate design offices at flagship technology companies and volunteers at nonprofit NGOs; global design consultancies and boutique studios; research laboratories and academic design programs. Together they form the interconnected network that is Silicon Valley. Apple products are famously “Designed in California,” but, as Barry Katz shows in this first-ever, extensively illustrated history, the role of design in Silicon Valley began decades before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak dreamed up Apple in a garage. Offering a thoroughly original view of the subject, Katz tells how design helped transform Silicon Valley into the most powerful engine of innovation in the world. From Hewlett-Packard and Ampex in the 1950s to Google and Facebook today, design has provided the bridge between research and development, art and engineering, technical performance and human behavior. Katz traces the origins of all of the leading consultancies—including IDEO, frog, and Lunar—and shows the process by which some of the world's most influential companies came to place design at the center of their business strategies. At the same time, universities, foundations, and even governments have learned to apply “design thinking” to their missions. Drawing on unprecedented access to a vast array of primary sources and interviews with nearly every influential design leader—including Douglas Engelbart, Steve Jobs, and Don Norman—Katz reveals design to be the missing link in Silicon Valley's ecosystem of innovation.
Silicon-on-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI, Third Edition, retraces the evolution of SOI materials, devices and circuits over a period of roughly twenty years. Twenty years of progress, research and development during which SOI material fabrication techniques have been born and abandoned, devices have been invented and forgotten, but, most importantly, twenty years during which SOI Technology has little by little proven it could outperform bulk silicon in every possible way. The turn of the century turned out to be a milestone for the semiconductor industry, as high-quality SOI wafers suddenly became available in large quantities. From then on, it took only a few years to witness the use of SOI technology in a wealth of applications ranging from audio amplifiers and wristwatches to 64-bit microprocessors. This book presents a complete and state-of-the-art review of SOI materials, devices and circuits. SOI fabrication and characterization techniques, SOI CMOS processing, and the physics of the SOI MOSFET receive an in-depth analysis. Silicon-on-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI, Third Edition, also describes the properties of other SOI devices, such as multiple gate MOSFETs, dynamic threshold devices and power MOSFETs. The advantages and performance of SOI circuits used in both niche and mainstream applications are discussed in detail. The SOI specialist will find this book invaluable as a source of compiled references covering the different aspects of SOI technology. For the non-specialist, the book serves an excellent introduction to the topic with detailed, yet simple and clear explanations. Silicon-on-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI, Third Edition is recommended for use as a textbook for classes on semiconductor device processing and physics at the graduate level.
After over two decades of focused research and development, silicon carbide (SiC) is now ready for use in the healthcare sector and Silicon Carbide Technology for Advanced Human Healthcare Applications provides an up-to-date assessment of SiC devices for long-term human use. It explores a plethora of applications that SiC is uniquely positioned for in human healthcare, beginning with the three primary areas of technology which are closest to human trials and thus adoption in the healthcare industry: neural implants and spinal cord repair, graphene and biosensors, and finally deep tissue cancer therapy using SiC nanotechnology. Biomedical-inspired engineers, scientists, and healthcare professionals will find this book to be very useful in two ways: (I) as a guide to new ways to design and develop advanced medical devices and (II) as a reference for new developments in the field. The book's intent is to stimulate ideas for further technological enhancements and breakthroughs, which will provide alternative solutions for human healthcare applications. - Discusses the utilization of SiC materials for biomedical applications - Provides a logical pathway to understand why SiC is ideal for several critical applications, in particular for long-term implantable devices, and will serve as a guide to new ways to design and develop advanced medical devices - Serves as a reference for new developments in the field and as a technology resource for medical doctors and practitioners looking to identify and implement advanced engineering solutions to everyday medical challenges that currently lack long-term, cost-effective solutions