Semiconductor devices are currently facing a major turning point in their development.
This is because the method of performance improvement that has been carried out by inertia through miniaturization of components has become truly difficult (of course, the difficulty of miniaturization of components has been discussed for over 30 years, but it has been continuously overcome and developed).
The reason why miniaturization of devices is important is because through miniaturization, the operating speed of the devices has been increased, and this increased operating speed has been used to improve computing performance.
The speed of computing is a measure of the progress of humanity in the information society.
Faster computing speeds free up computing time, which can be used for a variety of other things, from complex quantum simulations to dazzling game graphics.
There is growing concern about how to further develop the computing performance that has largely relied on miniaturization of components.
In this way, semiconductor devices are not simply industrial products, but are currently playing a pivotal role in human development.
--- p.18

Some chips used today are called semiconductors even though they do not use any semiconductor materials at all.
As mentioned above, the semiconductor industry has many technologies that have developed as a result of creating integrated circuits that put a large number of unit elements into a small chip.
This manufacturing technology is called 'semiconductor integration process'.
It is a technique specialized in making a large number of identical small-sized shapes.
It is a sophisticated technology that can create over 10 billion unit elements in an extremely small area of ​​less than 1 cm on one side.

--- p.35

The number of semiconductor chips is increasing over time.
To satisfy these necessary functions, semiconductor chips are made by combining hundreds to billions of unit elements.
Integrated circuits using semiconductors have a great advantage in combining such a large number of elements.
For that reason, semiconductor devices replaced vacuum tube devices and became synonymous with electronic devices and were used in all electronic products.

--- p.39

A person who cannot be left out in the history of general-purpose computers is John von Neumann (1903-1957).
Von Neumann was a mathematician born in Hungary in 1903 and active in the United States. He is one of the people who always appears when discussing the greatest geniuses of mankind.
He has achieved many things, including organizing game theory and participating in the Manhattan Project, but one of his most notable achievements is proposing the structure of a "general purpose computer" called the "von Neumann architecture."
--- p.77

In 1958, my first year on the job, a hot Texas summer arrived.
Most of the temples were on summer vacation, but Kilby could not.
Because I was a new employee, I didn't have any annual leave.
Kilby comes to the office alone on a hot summer day and thinks of an easy solution to this wiring problem.
A manufacturing method was devised to create a single piece by placing various unit elements such as transistors, capacitors, resistors, and other elements on a flat Germanium plate and connecting these elements with gold wires.
Kilby further developed this technology and demonstrated it in September of that year.
It has been shown that it is possible to make various application products, such as amplifiers, into a single chip.
This was the first integrated circuit.

--- p.102

As volume and power consumption have been dramatically reduced, the emergence of products that were previously unimaginable has become possible.
In the past, computers were business products that could only be used in companies and research labs.
However, with the advent of integrated circuits, they became small enough for even the average household to own, and their power consumption became manageable.
So computers became home appliances for personal use rather than corporate equipment.
The birth of the integrated circuit thus became the cornerstone for the era of personal computers.
Conversely, the advent of personal computers created a virtuous cycle that greatly increased the demand for integrated semiconductor devices, further expanding the electronics industry.

--- p.106

In 1975, Moore revised Moore's Law to state that the number of transistors per integrated circuit chip would double every two years instead of every one.
This is what we know as Moore's Law today.
Since then, in the semiconductor industry, 'Moore's Law' has ceased to be a predictor of the future, but rather has come to symbolize a common goal for the advancement of semiconductor devices.
It has become a compass that guides all semiconductor researchers to consider what is needed to satisfy this trend two years from now.

--- p.113

A clean room is a space where not only dust but also temperature, humidity, air pressure, and illumination are precisely controlled.
Normally, the pressure is maintained at a positive pressure higher than the outside to prevent air from flowing in from the outside.
And people working in clean rooms are required to wear special clothes called dust-proof suits that do not generate dust, and to wear masks and gloves.
In this way, semiconductor manufacturing can be understood as a fight against pollution.


Pollution here is not talking about the visible level, but the very microscopic level, such as a speck of dust, human breath, sweat, or cosmetics.
Ions that can kill semiconductor devices exist in human breath, sweat, and cosmetics.
To prevent these things, special facilities and clothing such as clean rooms, protective clothing, and gloves are required.

--- p.145

Advances in semiconductor device technology have made it possible to create portable devices that can run on battery power.
The emergence of new products that did not exist before makes the electronics industry market even bigger.
This can be seen by thinking about the market for devices such as smartphones or game consoles.
This is a characteristic of the semiconductor device industry, where technological advancements create a virtuous cycle of new product emergence and market expansion, thereby further promoting technological advancement.


So people in the semiconductor industry have one belief.
If we can make faster components, we can use them to create new product lines, which will expand the market and make more money.
Therefore, the semiconductor industry should not think about anything else and just keep working to make devices faster.
Then the market will automatically create new products, allowing you to grow and make money.

--- p.157

The story that device miniaturization would not continue has been around since the 1μm technology node.
Even Gordon Moore is said to have thought that Moore's Law would stop once the 1μm technology node was reached.
A substance cannot be smaller than the smallest unit that represents the nature of the substance, which is a molecule.
Therefore, the size of the element can never be smaller than that of a molecule, and as it approaches that size, problems that we have not thought of are bound to arise.
Therefore, it is clear that the miniaturization of devices cannot continue.
However, technological advancements have continued to delay that point, and we have now reached a point where the size of the devices is 10 or 100 times the size of molecules.

--- p.173

Much of the rapid pace that our society enjoys today is achieved through semiconductors.
Things that require fast computation, such as fast and accurate weather forecasts, computer graphics in movies and games that are so realistic that they are indistinguishable from reality, and autonomous vehicles that recognize and avoid people, depend largely on the performance of semiconductor devices.
Over 90% of the new and exciting products we've had in the last 50 years, including internet smartphones, AR (Augmented Reality), and VR (Virtual Reality), were made possible by faster semiconductor devices.
This has also become possible because memory capacity has increased.

--- p.208