It is generally accepted that the 20th century was age of electronics [...]

The fundamental connection between electron stimulated desorption ~ESD! of hydrogen ~H!/ deuterium ~D! at silicon surfaces in ultrahigh vacuum and hot-carrier-stimulated desorption of H/D at the oxide/silicon interfaces in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor ~CMOS! devices is presented. The dependences of device degradation on carrier energy and current density were studied on two generatio...

We have probed the local thermoelectric power of semiconductor nanostructures with the use of ultrahigh-vacuum scanning thermoelectric microscopy. When applied to a p-n junction, this method reveals that the thermoelectric power changes its sign abruptly within 2 nanometers across the junction. Because thermoelectric power correlates with electronic structure, we can profile with nanometer spat...

The AAAS journal Science chose Nanocircuits as its Breakthrough of the Year for 2001 [27]. Last year’s ICCAD keynote speech and evening panel were on Nanotechnology and Information [16]. Exciting results in basic research on molecular-scale electronic devices and interconnects are being reported with ever-greater frequency. Self-assembling digital systems with billions of components may be an e...

An integrated approach to the understanding of charge-controlled electronic devices is presented. Although only vacuum triodes and diffusion-type transistors are discussed in detail, the methods suggested are also applicable to gas-filled and multi-electrode vacuum structures, to surface-barrier and to drift-type transistors, and to space-chargelimited solid-state devices. The treatment is tuto...