History of Semiconductors lecture flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the historical milestones, major inventions, and scaling trends in semiconductor technology as presented in the ECE 21112 lecture.

$$1876$$

The year the telephone was invented.

$$1897$$

The year the radio was invented and the electron was identified.

Vacuum Tube Era

The period when electronics was dominated by the vacuum tube, used for audio systems, radio, navigation, microwaves, radar, and early computers.

Microwave power tubes

A category of vacuum tubes still in use today that includes Magnetrons, Klystrons, and TWT.

First Transistor

Invented in $1947$ at AT&T Bell Labs by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley.

First single-crystal Silicon

A semiconductor milestone reached in $1954$, following the first single-crystal Germanium in $1952$.

First IC Device

The first integrated circuit device invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments in $1958$.

First IC Product

The first integrated circuit product, associated with Robert Noyce and Fairchild Camera in $1961$.

Transistor Advantages

Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors are smaller, lighter, more rugged, and have less power consumption, lower operating voltage, less heat, and greater reliability.

First Microprocessor

Invention of the first microprocessor by Intel in $1971$, followed by the first commercial MPUs in $1975$ (Intel $8080$ and Motorola $6800$).

Moore’s Law

An observation by Gordon Moore in $1964$ that the number of transistors on a chip doubled every $12$ months while the price remained unchanged, slowing to $18$ months in the $1980s$.

Small Scale Integration (SSI)

An IC device scaling level with $2 - 50$ devices per chip.

Medium Scale Integration (MSI)

An IC device scaling level with $50 - 5K$ devices per chip.

Large Scale Integration (LSI)

An IC device scaling level with $5K - 100K$ devices per chip.

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)

An IC device scaling level with $100K - 10M$ devices per chip.

Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI)

An IC device scaling level with $10M - 1B$ devices per chip.

Super Large Scale Integration (SLSI)

An IC device scaling level with more than $1B$ devices per chip.

Smallest Known Transistor ($1997$)

A transistor developed by NEC Corporation with a lower gate width of $14\text{nm}$ (0.014\text{\mu m}).

IC Geometry Limit

The point where device size reaches atomic size; for example, 0.01\text{\mu m} is approximately $30$ silicon atoms.