The evolution of technology for electronic materials over the last 50 years

Electronic materials are typified by silicon chips. Today's standard processor chips will have maximum of 400 million transistor equivalents. These systems usually involve very high speed applications and extreme conditions. The special capabilities of transistors come from the ability to controllably dope a semiconductor with electrically active elements to have either n-type or p-type electrical conductivity. With problems associated with too much scaling and materials, the industry is actively looking for potential new phenomena and materials for integrated circuits (ICs). Meanwhile, there have been significant improvements in the magnetic media on the disks over the years, but the major technical advances in recording density have been in the write and read heads of the disk systems. On the photonic sector, displays, communication, information storage and lighting are the present primary application domains of photonic materials, with photovoltaics for power generation still relatively small but increasing rapidly. To date, photonic materials have not seen the dramatic scaling of functionality that has characterized electronic and magnetic materials. Meanwhile, superconductors have the smallest economic impact and range of applications. This is primarily because of the cost and inconvenience of having to use liquid coolants to hold these materials at temperatures at which they achieve zero electrical resistivity. The main use for superconductors is in wires for superconducting magnets.