Current status and future trends in silicon power devices

Over the past 60 years, semiconductor device technology has enabled major social and economic changes throughout the world. These changes bring opportunities and challenges to all of us. Within the semiconductor industry, the silicon digital sector is by far the dominant one. Along with the need for processing information, many successful products also have one or more output drivers with a power device that performs a real world function, such as charging or switching a battery, controlling a motor, driving a discrete power device, and so on. The aim of this paper is to review the status, trends, and contributions made by silicon power devices to the overall semiconductor industry.