New unorthodox semiconductor devices

A distinctive feature in the development of solid-state electronic devices has been the long time interval that has usually elapsed between the initial conception of the device, and its experimental realisation. The technology bottleneck which gives rise to this phenomenon has recently been significantly widened by the emergence of several new technologies which are enabling the realisation of device structures which, although not entirely new in concept, are receiving a revived interest because they are now technologically feasible. The author discusses a range of new device structures, many of which fall into the above category, and the ways in which new advances in technology have made them realistic contenders for many device applications. In addition a number of structures which rely upon entirely new phenomena are presented, with experimental demonstration considerably enhanced, and in some cases only made possible by the emergence of ion-implantation and molecular beam epitaxy.