Electronic Materials Research: Present And Future Trends

Introduction There is probably no field in which materials research has played a greater role than that of electronics. However, to trace present and future patterns of materials research in electronics is not an easy assignment, since this industry has a high degree of dynamism in its growth, and is busily engaged today in the scientific improbabilities of only recent yesterdays. On the other hand, this task seems especially appropriate since electronics is a truly frontier industry - one whose place in American industries has advanced from 50th prior to World War II to 6th in 1967, with sales of more than $22 billion. And this growth has been associated with the equally rapid progress of science and technology over the period - in particular with the emergence of materials science as a vital force in underscoring this progress. For several reasons this parallel growth is not too surprising. First, by its very definition electronics is a science that essentially deals with the nature, behavior, detection, generation, control and utilization of electrons in solids or at their surfaces. Second, in the electronics industry, systems are made of an integration of components, and these components with their interconnections are made of materials. Thus, the basic building blocks of systems are materials; and it has been largely the advances in materials research and technology that have led to new and improved devices and systems. It follows, therefore, that the broadening of the frontiers in electronics through the exploration of new territories is tantamount to scientific discovery and materials innovation to a degree found in no other major industrial activity. But to put this in the proper perspective of present and future materials trends, it would be appropriate first to survey historically the progress in electronics by pointing out major scientific discoveries and associated materials research patterns that have led directly to its tremendous growth. Then from this base we can consider recent trends in materials research that could form the basis for future progress in the electronics industry. In my review I shall examine the areas most familiar to me, so I must acknowledge at the outset that this survey is not all-inclusive.