Semiconductors and the Information Revolution

CHAPTER 10. Large Area Electronics

Flat Screen TV and Solar Electricity

In very nearly every example we have looked at so far, success in semiconductor technology has rested on the application of single crystals of the appropriate material. It all started with the use of natural crystals of lead sulphide to make cat's whisker radio detectors (though these were certainly made up of largish polycrystals) but the real breakthrough came, of course, with the development of artificial crystals of germanium and silicon for making transistors. Success here, led to the growth of enormous boules of silicon (up to 12 in. in diameter) for cost-efficient manufacture of integrated circuits and it gradually became clear that most other semiconductor devices would ...