Gallium arsenide-a new generation of integrated circuits

Since the early days of semiconductor technology, a number of different materials have been studied with a view to investigating phenomena that may lead to significant new devices and ICs. Of all the new materials, the one that has received most attention to date is gallium arsenide, together with some of its closely related binary, ternary and quaternary compounds. After silicon, gallium arsenide is now regarded as the second most important electronic material. To understand the reason for this, the authors identify some of the special properties which make its performance superior