New Frontiers

05/01/1997

New frontiers

I enjoyed reading your editorial ("New frontiers: Beyond silicon CMOS," February, p. 14). I like your bold approach. You stated that you might look back 10 years from now and laugh at your naive mistakes. I think it is more likely that you`ll say that you didn`t go far enough. I`ve been around a while and I`m finding that that is the case. In 1965, my projections of "writing" electronically controlled microcircuits by ion implantation seemed far out, as did the suggestion of making micron-sized actuators in 1982. The future comes all too fast, and when it arrives we find that we haven`t been daring enough.

F. Lincoln Vogel

Grafitech

St. Clair Shores, MI

In response to your February editorial, it is disappointing that you didn`t mention SiGe as a new frontier. Looking at the enormous investment in CMOS technology, I do not think any non-Si will pose a real threat to Si CMOS technology. Silicon germanium is coming up fast, and its speed is catching up with GaAs. Apart from being CMOS compatible (manufacturer friendly), it also closes the gap between n- and p-type transistors, and will be favored by circuit designers.

Songphol Kanjanachuchai

Microelectronics Research Centre,

Cambridge University

Cambridge, UK