SILICON MICROELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY

Two inventions-the bipolar transistor and the integrated circuit-have fundamentally revolutionized the technology of mankind. Within a perio d of fifty years, the microelectronics industry has increased the numb er of transistors fabricated on a single piece of semiconductor crysta l by a factor of about 100 million, that is, 1.0e 10(+8), a productivi ty phenomenon unparalleled in the history of technology and mankind. T his paper begins with a historical review of that revolution-from the first integrated circuit to modern very large scale integration (VLSI) technology-and then reviews the development of present-day microelect ronics manufacturing technology, based on the concept of the ''planar process.'' The topics covered include silicon crystal technology, crys tal dopant techniques, silicon oxidation development, lithography, mat erials deposition processes, pattern transfer mechanisms, metal interc onnect technology, and material passivation technology. The paper conc ludes with a review of the major technical and economic issues that fa ce the microelectronics industry today and discusses the future techni cal and economic paths that the industry may take.