This book is the result of a long friendship, of a broad international co operation, and of a bold dream. It is the summary of work carried out by the authors, and several other wonderful people, during more than 15 years, across 3 continents, in the course of countless meetings, workshops and discus sions. It shows that neither language nor distance can be an obstacle to close scientific cooperation, when there is unity of goals and true collaboration. When we started, we had very different approaches to handling the mys terious, almost magical world of asynchronous circuits. Some were more theo retical, some were closer to physical reality, some were driven mostly by design needs. In the end, we all shared the same belief that true Electronic Design Automation research must be solidly grounded in formal models, practically minded to avoid excessive complexity, and tested "in the field" in the form of experimental tools. The results are this book, and the CAD tool petrify. The latter can be downloaded and tried by anybody bold (or desperate) enough to tread into the clockless (but not lawless) domain of small-scale asynchronicity. The URL is http: //www.lsi. upc. esr j ordic/petrify. We believe that asynchronous circuits are a wonderful object, that aban dons some of the almost militaristic law and order that governs synchronous circuits, to improve in terms of simplicity, energy efficiency and performance."

Nonlinear optics is a topic of much current interest that exhibits a great diversity. Some publications on the subject are clearly physics, while others reveal an engineering bias; some appear to be accessible to the chemist, while others may appeal to biological understanding. Yet all purport to be non linear optics so where is the underlying unity? The answer is that the unity lies in the phenomena and the devices that exploit them, while the diversity lies in the materials used to express the phenomena. This book is an attempt to show this unity in diversity by bringing together contributions covering an unusually wide range of materials, preceded by accounts of the main phenomena and important devices. Because ofthe diversity, individual materials are treated in separate chapters by different expert authors, while as editors we have shouldered the task of providing the unifying initial chapters. Most main classes of nonlinear optical solids are treated: semiconductors, glasses, ferroelectrics, molecular crystals, polymers, and Langmuir-Blodgett films. (However, liquid crystals are not covered. ) Each class of material is enough for a monograph in itself, and this book is designed to be an introduction suitable for graduate students and those in industry entering the area of nonlinear optics. It is also suitable in parts for final-year undergraduates on project work. It aims to provide a bridge between traditional fields of expertise and the broader field of nonlinear optics."

Present-day scienceand technology have become increasingly based on studies and applications of thin films. This is especiallytrue of solid-state physics, semiconduc tor electronics, integrated optics, computer science, and the like. In these fields, it is necessary to use filmswith an ordered structure, especiallysingle-crystallinefilms, because physical phenomena and effects in such films are most reproducible. Also, active parts of semiconductor and other devices and circuits are created, as a rule, in single-crystal bodies. To date, single-crystallinefilms have been mainly epitaxial (or heteroepitaxial); i.e., they have been grown on a single-crystalline substrate, and principal trends, e.g., in the evolution of integrated circuits (lCs), have been based on continuing reduction in feature size and increase in the number of components per chip. However, as the size decreases into the submicrometer range, technological and physical limitations in integrated electronics become more and more severe. It is generally believed that a feature size of about 0.1um will have a crucial character. In other words, the present two-dimensional ICs are anticipated to reach their limit of minimization in the near future, and it is realized that further increase of packing density and/or functions might depend on three-dimensional integration. To solve the problem, techniques for preparation of single-crystalline films on arbitrary (including amorphous) substrates are essential."

This book presents a method for replicating natural butterfly wing scales using a variety of metals for state-of-the-art applications requiring high surface-enhancement properties. During the past decade, three dimensional (3D) sub-micrometer structures have attracted considerable attention for optical applications. These 3D subwavelength metallic structures are, however, difficult to prepare. By contrast, the 3D superstructures of butterfly wing scales, with more than 175 000 morphologies, are efficiently engineered by nature. Natural butterfly wing scales feature 3D sub-micrometer structures that are superior to many human designs in terms of structural complexity, reproducibility, and cost. Such natural wealth offers a versatile chemical route via the replication of these structures into functional metals. A single versatile chemical route can be used to produce butterfly scales in seven different metals. These synthesized structures have the potential for catalytic (Au, Pt, Pd), thermal (Ag, Au, Cu), electrical (Au, Cu, Ag), magnetic (Co, Ni), and optical (Au, Ag, Cu) applications. Plasmon-active Au, Cu, Ag butterfly scales have exhibited excellent properties in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The Au scales as SERS substrates have ten times the analyte detection sensitivity and are one-tenth the cost of their human-designed commercial counterparts (KlariteTM). Preliminary mechanisms of these surface-enhancement phenomena are also reviewed.

This book describes clearly various research topics investigated for these 10 years in the Research Center of Advanced Structural and Functional Materials Design in Osaka University, Japan. Every chapter is aimed at understanding most advanced researches in materials science by describing its fundamentals and details as much as possible. Since both general explanations and cutting-edge commentaries are given for each topic in this book, it provides a lot of useful information for ordinary readers as well as materials scientists & engineers who wish to understand the future development in materials science fields of metals, alloys, ceramics, semiconductors etc. In particular, this book deals with special fusion area of structural and functional materials such as medical bone materials, of which contents are very unique features as materials science textbook.

Iptycenes Chemistry: From Synthesis to Applications provides a comprehensive overview of the development of iptycene chemistry in the past seventy years. This book covers: (1) the basic nomenclature and general properties of iptycenes and their derivatives; (2) the synthesis and functionalization reactions of triptycenes, pentiptycenes, higher iptycenes, heterotriptycenes, and homotriptycenes; (3) the methods for the preparation of iptycene-based polymers with different types; and (4) the applications of iptycenes and their derivatives in molecular machines, materials science, host-guest chemistry, self-assembly, coordination chemistry, physical organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and so on. Consequently, such a book is not only helpful to researchers working in iptycene chemistry, but can also facilitate future research in wide areas.

In the series of International Winter Schools on New Developments in Solid State Physics, the fourth one was devoted to the subject: "Two- Dimensional Systems: Physics and Devices". For the second time the pro- ceedings of one of these Winter Schools appear as a volume in the Springer Series in Solid-State Sciences (the earlier proceedings were published as Vol. 53). The school was held in the castle of MauterndorfjSalzburg (Austria) February 24-28, 1986. These proceedings contain contributions ba:sed on the thirty invited lectures. The school was attended by 179 registered participants (40% students), who came from western European countries, the United States of America, Japan, the People's Republic of China and Poland. As far as the subjects are conterned, several papers deal with the growth and characterization of heterostructures. Dynamical RHEED tech- niques are described as a tool for in situ studies of MBE growth mech- anisms. Various growth techniques, including MBE, MOMBE, MOCVD and modifications of these, are discussed. The limiting fa.ctors for the carrier mobilities and the inftuence of the spacer thickness in single het- erostructures of GaAs/GaAIAs seem to be understood and are no longer a matter of controversy. In addition, the growth of two fascinating systems, Si/SiGe and Hg _ Cd Te/CdTe, is discussed in detail.

Today's wireless communications and information systems are heavily based on microwave technology. Current trends indicate that in the future along with - crowaves, the millimeter wave and Terahertz technologies will be used to meet the growing bandwidth and overall performance requirements. Moreover, motivated by the needs of the society, new industry sectors are gaining ground; such as wi- less sensor networks, safety and security systems, automotive, medical, envir- mental/food monitoring, radio tags etc. Furthermore, the progress and the pr- lems in the modern society indicate that in the future these systems have to be more user/consumer friendly, i. e. adaptable, reconfigurable and cost effective. The mobile phone is a typical example which today is much more than just a phone; it includes a range of new functionalities such as Internet, GPS, TV, etc. To handle, in a cost effective way, all available and new future standards, the growing n- ber of the channels and bandwidth both the mobile handsets and the associated systems have to be agile (adaptable/reconfigurable). The complex societal needs have initiated considerable activities in the field of cognitive and software defined radios and triggered extensive research in adequate components and technology platforms. To meet the stringent requirements of these systems, especially in ag- ity and cost, new components with enhanced performances and new functionalities are needed. In this sense the components based on ferroelectrics have greater - tential and already are gaining ground.

The Advanced Study Institute on "Theoretical Aspects and New Developments in Magneto-Optics" was held at the University of Antwerpen (R.U.C.A.), from July 16 to July 28, 1979. The Institute was sponsored by NATO. Co-sponsors were: Agfa-Gevaert (Belgium), A.S.L.K. (Belgium), Bell Telephone Mfg. CO. (Belgium), Esso Belgium, Generale Bankmaatschappij (Belgium), General Motors (Belgium), I.B.M. (Belgium), Kredietbank (Belgium), Metallurgie Hoboken-Over pelt (Belgium), National Science Foundation (U.S.A). A total of 60 lecturers and participants attended the Institute. Scope of the Institute The magneto-optic phenomena are due to the change of the polarizability of a substance as a result of the splitting of the quantized energy bands. Most of these phenomena were discovered during the second half of this century. The understanding of the magneto-optical effects of all kinds, however, was brought by the advent of quantum mechanics, and since then important progress has been made in many fields of experimental methods and techniques.

This book examines the physical principles behind the operation of high-speed transistors operating at frequencies above 10 GHz and having switching times less than 100 psec. If the 1970s cannot be remembered for the opportunities for creating and extensively using transistors operating at such high speeds, then, the situation has changed radically because of rapid progress in sub micrometer technology for manufacturing transistors and integrated circuits from GaAs and other semiconductor materials and the powerful influx of new physical concepts. Not only have transistors having switching speeds of 50-100 psec operating in the 10-20 GHz region been created in recent years, but the possibilities for manufacturing transistors operating one to two orders of magnitude faster have been revealed. As superhigh-speed transistors have been created, many of the most important areas of technology such as communications, computing technology, television, radar, and the manufacture of scientific, industrial, and medical equipment have qualitatively changed. Microwave transistors operating at millimeter wavelengths make it possible to produce compact and highly efficient equipment for communications and radar technology. Transistors with switching speeds better than 10-100 psec make it possible to increase the speed of microprocessors and other computer components to tens of billions of operations per second and thereby solve one of the most pressing problems of modern electronics - increasing the speed of digital information processing.

This book is an outgrowth of a course given by the author for people in industry, government, and universities wishing to understand the implica tions of emerging optical fiber technology, and how this technology can be applied to their specific information transport and sensing system needs. The course, in turn, is an outgrowth of 15 exciting years during which the author participated in the research and development, as well as in the application, of fiber technology. The aim of this book is to provide the reader with a working knowledge of the components and subsystems which make up fiber systems and of a wide variety of implemented and proposed applications for fiber technology. The book is directed primarily at those who would be users, as opposed to developers, of the technology. The first half of this book is an overview of components and subsys tems including fibers, connectors, cables, sources, detectors, receivers, transmitters, and miscellaneous components. The goal is to familiarize the reader with the properties of these components and subsystems to the extent necessary to understand their potential applications and limitations.

This book is concerned primarily with the fundamental theory underlying the physical and chemical properties of crystalIine semiconductors. After basic introductory material on chemical bonding, electronic band structure, phonons, and electronic transport, some emphasis is placed on surface and interfacial properties, as weil as effects of doping with a variety of impurities. Against this background, the use of such materials in device physics is examined and aspects of materials preparation are discussed briefty. The level of presentation is suitable for postgraduate students and research workers in solid-state physics and chemistry, materials science, and electrical and electronic engineering. Finally, it may be of interest to note that this book originated in a College organized at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, in Spring 1984. P. N. Butcher N. H. March M. P. Tosi vii Contents 1. Bonds and Bands in Semiconductors 1 E. Mooser 1. 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 2. The Semiconducting Bond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1. 3. Bond Approach Versus Band Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. 4. Construction of the Localized X by Linear Combination of n Atomic Orbitals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1. 5. The General Octet Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1. 6. The Aufbau-Principle of the Crystal Structure of Semiconductors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 1. 7. A Building Principle for Polyanionic Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 I. H. Structural Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 1. 9. Chemical Bonds and Semiconductivity in Transition-Element Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 1. 10. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 2. Electronic Band Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 G. Grosso 2. 1. Two Different Strategies for Band-Structure Calculations . . . . . . . 55 2. 2. The Tight-Binding Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

of progress has been made in the development of In the last twenty years a great amount new magnetic materials. Permanent magnets have progressed from the AlNiCo's (with (BH)m-8 MGOe) to the strong rare-earth magnets of SmCo BH)m-20 MGOe), Sm2(Co, Fe, Cu, Zrh7 s BH)m-30 MGOe) and the recently discovered Nd-Fe-B super-magnets with (BH)m-50 MGOe. For years the magnetic storage industry has employed Fe0 and CrO for storage media and 2 3 z permalloys and ferrites for recording heads. The recent development of thin film heads, the demand of higher density of information storage and the emergence of completely new technologies, like magneto-optics, call for entirely new types of magnetic materials. Another area in which new techniques of materials preparation have made a dramatic impact is the epitaxial growth of magnetic films. Recent work has shown that this process can be controlled on the scale of atomic monolayers permitting the growth of totally artificial structures, such as artificial superlattices with a resolution on this scale. Epitaxial growth has also permitted the stabilization of metastable phases in thin film form. These new phases often possess striking properties, such as strong perpendicular anisotropies, which may prove useful for technological applications such as recording. Research on magnetic multilayers and superlattices is increasing at an accelerating pace. Complex couplings between different magnetic layers lead to new properties not seen in bulk materials.

The Institute for Amorphous Studies was founded in 1982 as the international center for the investigation of amorphous mate rials. It has since played an important role in promoting the und er standing of disordered matter in general. An Institute lecture series on "Fundamentals of Amorphous Materials and Devices" was held during 1982-83 with distinguished speakers from universities and industry. These events were free and open to the public, and were attended by many representatives of the scientific community. The lectures themselves were highly successful inasmuch as they provided not only formal instruction but also an opportunity for vigorous and stimulating debate. That last element could not be captured within the pages of a book I but the lectures concentrated on the latest advances in the field I which is why their essential contents are he re reproduced in collective form. Together they constitute an interdisciplinary status report of the field. The speakers brought many different viewpoints and a variety of back ground experiences io bear on the problems involved I but though language and conventions vary I the essential unity of the concerns is very clear I as indeed are the ultimate benefits of the many-sided approach."

GaAs devices and integrated circuits have emerged as leading contenders for ultra-high-speed applications. This book is intended to be a reference for a rapidly growing GaAs community of researchers and graduate students. It was written over several years and parts of it were used for courses on GaAs devices and integrated circuits and on heterojunction GaAs devices developed and taught at the University of Minnesota. Many people helped me in writing this book. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Lester Eastman of Cornell University, whose ideas and thoughts inspired me and helped to determine the direction of my research work for many years. I also benefited from numerous discussions with his students and associates and from the very atmosphere of the pursuit of excellence which exists in his group. I would like to thank my former and present co-workers and colleagues-Drs. Levinstein and Gelmont of the A. F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, Professor Melvin Shaw of Wayne State University, Dr. Kastalsky of Bell Communi cations, Professor Gary Robinson of Colorado State University, Professor Tony Valois, and Dr. Tim Drummond of Sandia Labs-for their contributions to our joint research and for valuable discussions. My special thanks to Professor Morko.;, for his help, his ideas, and the example set by his pioneering work. Since 1978 I have been working with engineers from Honeywell, Inc.-Drs."

This volume contains a sequence of reviews presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on 'Low Dimensional Structures in Semiconductors ... from Basic Physics to Applications.' This was part of the International School of Materials Science and 1990 at the Ettore Majorana Centre in Sicily. Technology held in July Only a few years ago, Low Dimensional Structures was an esoteric concept, but now it is apparent they are likely to playa major role in the next generation of electronic devices. The theme of the School acknowledged this rapidly developing maturity.' The contributions to the volume consider not only the essential physics, but take a wider view of the topic, starting from material growth and processing, then prog ressing right through to applications with some discussion of the likely use of low dimensional devices in systems. The papers are arranged into four sections, the first of which deals with basic con cepts of semiconductor and low dimensional systems. The second section is on growth and fabrication, reviewing MBE and MOVPE methods and discussing the achievements and limitations of techniques to reduce structures into the realms of one and zero dimensions. The third section covers the crucial issue of interfaces while the final section deals with devices and device physics."

This volume contains the papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Magnetism and Structure in Systems of Reduced Dimension," held at l'Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargese - U.M.S. - C.N.R.S. - Universite de Corte Universite de Nice Sophia - Antipolis during June 15-19, 1992. The ordering of papers in the volume reflects the sequence of papers presented at the workshop. The aim was not to segregate the papers into rigidly defmed areas but to group the papers into small clusters, each cluster having a common theme. In this way the parallel, rather than serial, development of areas such as preparation of films, magnetic and structural characterization was highlighted. Indeed the success of the field depends on such parallel development and is assisted by workshops of this nature and the international collaborations which they foster. The organizers and participants of the NATO workshop express their thanks to Mme. Marie-France Hanseier and the staff at l'Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargese U.M.S. - C.N.R.S. - Universite de Corte - Universite de Nice Sophia - Antipolis for making the workshop and local arrangements a memorable success. Warm thanks are also expressed to Varadachari Sadagopan and Pascal Stefanou for their encouragement and help in making the workshop a reality. We are also grateful to Kristl Hathaway, Larry Cooper and Gary Prinz for advice in developing the workshop program."

The aim of this NATO Advanced Study Institute was to bring together scientists and students working in the field of laser matter interactions in order to review and stimulate developmentoffundamental science with ultra-short pulse lasers. New techniques of pulse compression and colliding-pulse mode-locking have made possible the construction of lasers with pulse lengths in the femtosecond range. Such lasers are now in operation at several research laboratories in Europe and the United States. These laser facilities present a new and exciting research direction with both pure and applied science components. In this ASI the emphasis is on fundamental processes occurring in the interaction of short laser pulses with atoms, molecules, solids, and plasmas. In the case of laser-atom (molecule) interactions, high power lasers provide the first access to extreme high-intensity conditions above 10'8 Watts/em', a new frontier for nonlinear interaction of photons with atoms and molecules. New phenomena observed include multiphoton ionization processes, atomic collisions in the presence of a strong laser field, Coulomb explosion following rapid ionization of a molecule and the production of high harmonics of the laser source. Another important topic reviewed in this ASI is the lasercooling ofatoms.

This book presents highlighted results coming up from NanoCarbon2011, a Brazilian Carbon event. The topics cover the latest advances in Brazilian basic and applied research related to different carbon materials. The chapters address reviews on their fundamental and outstanding properties and describe various classes of new promising high-tech applications for carbon materials.

This book will address the advances, applications, research results, and emerging areas of optics, photonics, computational approaches, nano-photonics, bio-photonics, with applications in information systems. The objectives are to bring together novel approaches, analysis, models, and technologies that enhance sensing, measurement, processing, interpretation, and visualization of information. The book will concentrate on new approaches to information systems, including integration of computational algorithms, bio-inspired models, photonics technologies, information security, bio-photonics, and nano-photonics. Applications include bio-photonics, digitally enhanced sensing and imaging systems, multi-dimensional optical imaging and image processing, bio-inspired imaging, 3D visualization, 3D displays, imaging on nano-scale, quantum optics, super resolution imaging, photonics for biological applications, microscopy, information optics, and holographic information systems.

This book brings together selected contributions both on the fundamental information on the physics and chemistry of these materials, new physical ideas and decisive experiments. It constitutes both an insightful treatise and a handy reference for specialists and graduate students working in solid state physics and chemistry, material science and related fields.

This Advanced Study Institute on the topic of SOLID STATE MICROBATTERIES is the third and final institute on the general theme of a field of study now termed "SOLID STATE IONICS". The institute was held in Erice, Sicily, Italy, 3 - 15 July 1988. The objective was to assemble in one location individuals from industry and academia expert in the fields of microelectronics and solid state ionics to determine the feasibility of merging a solid state microbattery with microelectronic memory. Solid electrolytes are in principle amenable to vapor deposition, RF or DC sputtering, and other techniques used to fabricate microelectronic components. A solid state microbattery 1 1 mated on the same chip carrier as the chip can provide on board memory backup power. A solid state microbattery assembled from properly selected anode/solid electrolyte/cathode materials could have environmental endurance properties equal or superior to semiconductor memory chips. Lectures covering microelectronics, present state-of-art solid state batteries, new solid electrolyte cathode materials, theoretical and practical techniques for fabrication of new solid electrolytes, and analytical techniques for study of solid electrolytes were covered. Several areas where effort is required for further understanding of materials in pure form and their interactions with other materials at interfacial contact points were identified. Cathode materials for solid state batteries is one particular research area which requires attention. Another is a microscopic model of conduction in vitreous solid electrolytes to enhance the thermodynamic macroscopic Weak ~lectrolyte Iheory (WET).

One area of science that has shown an explosive growth over the last few decades is materials science. Inherently by nature products of both basic and applied research, materials make possible life and society as we know it today. Materials, ranging from ceramics to semiconductors to composites, are such that new ones must not only be designed and made ... they must also be characterized in terms of their physical, chemical, and mechanical properties. Thus, many new state of-the-art techniques involving spectroscopy, microscopy, and other approaches are now routinely used. Modem materials have wide applications in many sectors of technology. Films, for example, constitute an enormous area of materials and are used extensively. Films in tum can be integrated with other systems such as superconducting metal oxides and organic superconductors. Additionally, ceramics can also be synthesized and fabricated as films for different applications. Catalysts, too, can vary widely in both composition and form. The number of applications for catalysts in industry must easily rank as one of the highest number of applications for any class of materials. Catalysis is impOltant for a wide range of activities in industry, from petroleum refining to the synthesis of a large number of industrial feedstock materials. Researchers in this area of materials are constantly trying to unravel new approaches to making better catalysts."

Solid State Lighting Reliability: Components to Systems begins with an explanation of the major benefits of solid state lighting (SSL) when compared to conventional lighting systems including but not limited to long useful lifetimes of 50,000 (or more) hours and high efficacy. When designing effective devices that take advantage of SSL capabilities the reliability of internal components (optics, drive electronics, controls, thermal design) take on critical importance. As such a detailed discussion of reliability from performance at the device level to sub components is included as well as the integrated systems of SSL modules, lamps and luminaires including various failure modes, reliability testing and reliability performance. A follow-up, Solid State Lighting Reliability Part 2, was published in 2017.

This book has been written as part of a series of scientific books being published by Plenum Press. The scope of the series is to review a chosen topic in each volume. To supplement this information, the abstracts to the most important references cited in the text are reprinted, thus allowing the reader to find in-depth material without having to refer to many additional publications. This volume is dedicated to the field of dry (plasma) etching, as applied in silicon semiconductor processing. Although a number of books have appeared dealing with this area of physics and chemistry, these all deal with parts of the field. This book is unique in that it gives a compact, yet complete, in-depth overview of fundamentals, systems, processes, tools, and applications of etching with gas plasmas for VLSI. Examples are given throughout the fundamental sections, in order to give the reader a better insight in the meaning and magnitude of the many parameters relevant to dry etching. Electrical engineering concepts are emphasized to explain the pros and cons of reactor concepts and excitation frequency ranges. In the description of practical applications, extensive use is made of cross-referencing between processes and materials, as well as theory and practice. It is thus intended to provide a total model for understanding dry etching. The book has been written such that no previous knowledge of the subject is required. It is intended as a review of all aspects of dry etching for silicon semiconductor processing.