posted on 2024-11-18, 16:16authored byInaugural addresses
Inaugural lecture--Department of Electrical Engineering, Rand Afrikaans University, 10 June 1976@@Semiconductor devices are today being applied in systems operating at immensely differing levels of power and frequency. The traditional view of Electrical Engineering
being a dualistic discipline comprising the so-called heavy and lightcurrent
aspects, do not facilitate the identification of the position of Semiconductor Electronics in the structure. In a system comprising five overlapping structural components, namely Systems, Electromagnetics, Materials Science, Electronics and Information Science, Semiconductor Electronics may be considered a subsystem of Solid-State Electronics, which in turn is a sub-system of Electronic
Materials Science. The wide-spread application of semiconductor devices was hampered by a lack of understanding of the underlying physics before the advent of Quantum Mechanics and Solid-State Physics, and later by the complicated technological processes involved in manufacturing. Since 1948 there has been a steady flow of technological break-throughs stimulated by commercial, military and social pressures.
Future trends in technology are important to the device engineer in his profession as well as in his role as one of the links between society and technology. The inherent time delays in the event-chain idea-prototype-innovation allow him to make short-term predictions regarding the future. With specific reference to high-frequency components and integrated circuits, projections seem to point to the future importance of electron and ion beams in the device manufacturing technology. The realization of a strong, competitive economy, a formidable military power and the attainment of higher social and educational goals, necessitate the optimum exploitation and expansion of the existing body of scientific and technological knowledge. This country has achieved a great deal, but there are still untapped resources of manpower for research and development.