Semiconductors are used in a wide variety of solid-state devices including transistors, integrated circuits, diodes, photodiodes and light-emitting diodes.
Several elements in and around group IV of the Periodic Table show intrinsic semiconductor properties but of these Ge and Si (and to a lesser extent Se) alone have shown chemical and electrical properties suitable for electronic devices operating near room temperature.
Germanium and silicon were the first semiconductor materials in common use.
A great contribution to the study of semiconductor physics has been made by the prominent Soviet scientist A. F. Yoffe. It was in 1930 when Academician A.F. Yoffe and his co-workers started a systematic research in the field of semiconductors.
The diffusion theory of rectification on the boundary of the two semiconductors was elaborated by B. I. Davydov, a Soviet physicist, in 1938. Experimental support of his theory was of great importance in the investigation of processes occurring in p-n junctions.
Right after World War II, physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley, and many other scientists, turned full time to semiconductor research. Research was centered on the two simplest semiconductors germanium and silicon.
Experiments in question led to new theories. For example, William Shockley proposed an idea for a semiconductor amplifier that would critically test the theory. The actual device had far less amplification than predicted. John Bardeen suggested a revision theory that would explain why the device would not work and why previous experiments had not been accurately foretold by older theories. In new experiments designed to test the new theory they discovered an entirely new physical phenomenon the transistor effect. In 1948, W. Shockley patented the junction transistor. Junction transistors are essentially solid-state devices having three layers of alternately negative or positive type semiconductor material.
The early history of modern semiconductor technology can be traced to December 1947 when J. Bardeen and W. Brattain observed transistor action through point contacts applied to polycrystalline germanium. Germanium has become the material in common use. It was realized that transistor action occurred within the single grains of polycrystalline material.
G. Teal originally recognized the immense importance of single-crystal semiconductor materials as well as for providing the physical realization of the junction transistor. G. Teal reasoned in 1949, that polycrystalline germanium's uncontrolled resistances and electronic traps would affect transistor operations in uncontrolled ways. Additionally, he reasoned that polycrystalline material would provide inconsistent product yields and thus be costly. He was the first to define chemical purity, high degree of crystal perfection and uniformity of structure as well as controlled chemical composition (i.e. donor or acceptor concentration) of the single-crystal material as an essential foundation for semiconductor products.
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The next decade witnessed the universal semiconductor material, silicon. Silicon gradually gained favour over germanium as the universal semiconductor material.
SILICON
Silicon is to the electronics revolution what steel was to the industrial revolution.
Silicon has been the backbone of the semiconductor industry since the inception of commercial transistors and other solid-state devices.
The dominant role of silicon as a material for microelectronic circuits is attributable in large part to the properties of its oxide.
Silicon dioxide is a clear glass with a softening point higher than 1,400 degrees C. If a wafer of silicon is heated in an atmosphere of oxygen or water vapour, a film of silicon oxide forms on its surface. The film considered is hard and durable and adheres well. It makes an excellent insulator. The silicon dioxide is particularly important in the fabrication of integrated circuits because it can act as a mask for selective introduction of dopants. 
Silicon's larger band gap permitted device operation at higher temperatures (important for power devices) and thermal oxidation of silicon produced a non-water-soluble stable oxide (as compared to germanium's oxide) suitable for passing p-n junctions, serving as an impermeable diffusion mask for common dopants, and as insulator coating for conductor overlayers.
Oxygen concentration present influences many silicon wafer properties, such as wafer strength, resistance to thermal warping (), minority carrier lifetime and instability in resistivity.
The presence of oxygen contributes to both beneficial and detrimental effects. The determental effects can be reduced if the oxygen is maintained at less than 38 ppms. Thus, the oxygen range of the wafer present should be controlled. The results achieved with silicon are great.
However, although the silicon wafer clearly is a fundamental in-gradient in the fabrication of an integrated circuit, the silicon materials specification may not be critical element in developing a successful new 1 product strategy.
Large-scale integration (LSI) of devices has put great demands on electronic-grade single-crystal material. The semiconductor industry now requires high purity and minimum point-defects concentration in silicon in order to improve the component yield per silicon wafer. These requirements have become increasingly stringent as the technology changes from large-scale integration (LSI) to very large-scale integration (VLSI) and very large-scale integration (VLSI) to very high speed integrated circuits (VHSIC).
The yield (or circuit performance) of a device and the intrinsic and extrinsic materials properties of silicon are interdependent. The silicon wafer substrate must be practically defect-free when the active device density may be as high as 10 to 10 per chip.
To increase further the speed of semiconductor devices requires not only refinements in present designs and fabrication techniques, but also new materials that are inherently superior to materials presently being used, like germanium and silicon. New material under consideration is gallium arsenide.
Gallium arsenide has a much higher electron mobility than germanium and silicon. The opportunities present are as follows: it is potentially much faster; it has a larger band gap, permitting operation at higher temperatures; it is chemically and mechanically stable. Mobilities in this high-purity gallium arsenide are about twice those of germanium and four times those of silicon.
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The potential of high-purity gallium arsenide was first explicit in a new gallium arsenide-germanium hetero-junction diode. The hetero-junction device has a potential for much faster switching than conventional p-n junction diodes. Its calculated switching time is of the order of a few picoseconds (trillions of a second).
However, the difficulty of producing gallium arsenide of sufficient purity has limited its application.
Yet, gallium arsenide is far from the end of the story. Any searching for an answer makes contributions. This is the way of developing better materials and devices.
