This article explains the principles and role of semiconductors in enabling the development of information and communication technologies, and covers the impact and importance of the semiconductor industry on modern society and economies. It discusses how the development and evolution of semiconductors has put them at the center of the digital revolution and what role they will play in future technological advances.
The world has changed dramatically over the past few decades, with the rapid development of information and communication technologies at the center of it all. Information that was once scattered here and there in the analog world can now be converted to binary 0s and 1s and stored efficiently on a single transistor, a single chip, or a single machine. This change wasn’t just a technological advancement, but a major shift in our daily lives, economy, and society as a whole. People are now able to communicate freely through machines, and we have literally entered an era where we have most of our conveniences in the palm of our hands. In this digital environment, software-based services have exploded in popularity and are in huge demand.
But where did this fundamental revolution in industrial change come from? The development of semiconductors and the beginning of the semiconductor industry. The invention of semiconductors ushered in a new era of technological innovation in the mid-20th century. It made it possible to process data on a previously unimaginable scale and laid the foundation for the existence of modern computers and smart devices. Semiconductors are now an integral part of our lives and have become an important industry, shaping not only our lifestyles but also the competitiveness of economies and nations.
But what exactly does a semiconductor mean physically, and how do they provide the ability to store and manage information? A semiconductor is literally a material that is half conductor and half insulator (a material that does not allow current to flow through it). The important word “half” means that it can be both a conductor and an insulator at different times. And the most important property of semiconductors is that we can easily control these electrical properties by stimulating them. These properties make semiconductors fundamental for controlling electrical signals, which allows us to perform complex computations and data processing. This has made semiconductors more than just electronic devices; they are the core building blocks of all modern electronic devices.
To use an analogy, even before the development of semiconductors, the theory of classical electromagnetism was already well established by a physicist named James Clerk Maxwell. It was no problem to create vessels (capacitors and coils) to contain electromagnetic energy. But there was no technology to make it work by creating a valve to connect the bowls and regulate the flow of energy between them. A semiconductor is simply a bowl with a valve or faucet. There are many types of semiconductors, each of which regulates the opening and closing of the valve by changing the voltage applied to it, changing the intensity of light, changing the temperature, and so on, and they differ not only in the type of stimulus they respond to but also in the number of terminals through which current flows. We will introduce two of the simplest semiconductor devices. A diode has one valve, two terminals, and can allow current to flow from one side to the other, or not at all, depending on the change in voltage. A transistor has three terminals, and its job is to divide the current flowing from one terminal in a specific ratio to the other two, depending on the change in voltage.
So far, I’ve given you a brief description of what semiconductors are and how they work. To summarize, semiconductors are devices that have the ability to store, move, and manipulate electromagnetic energy and information. In addition, semiconductors are not only used to control electrical signals, but also play a key role in the development of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and autonomous vehicles. The development of these technologies are all closely related to the development of semiconductor technology, and semiconductors are expected to play a pivotal role in the development of future technologies.
So, what is the fundamental reason behind the modern semiconductor industry’s competitive growth, which is fueling the creation of new electronic devices and meeting the enormous demand for semiconductors? It’s what the industry often refers to as a “godsend”: sand, the second most abundant and cheapest substance on Earth’s surface. The sand is oxidized silicon. Silicon is an element that sits in the middle of the periodic table and is the best semiconductor between conductors and non-conductors. The advantages and possibilities of this cheap and abundant material led to the development of the Bipolar Junction Transistor by William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs. Since then, research has been centered in the United States, including the development of the field effect transistor. This research was not only a scientific achievement, but also a commercial success. This meant that semiconductors were no longer just an object of academic research, but were also recognized as a very important economic resource.
Crucially, the development of the integrated circuit by Jack Kilby and Robert Norton Noyce marked a major turning point and foothold in the development of semiconductors. The development of the integrated circuit was so influential that it was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, even though it wasn’t pure physics. To illustrate the power of integrated circuits with an easy example that we can see around us, we can look at the example of soldered radios that we were all familiar with in school. These radios simply had all the right components on a board and then soldered them together. This is because the boards were already designed and stamped with paths for current to flow. Once you have a design that works for your purpose, you can mass produce it very cheaply by repeating the design over and over again, just like engraving or painting. But what’s even more exciting is that we now have tens of thousands of transistors on a chip, all connected in an integrated circuit, and they all work together at once. It’s incredibly easy and cheap to produce.
Many semiconductor and semiconductor-based electronics companies have made incredible product, revenue, and technological advances over the past few decades. On a global scale, companies like Intel, Fairchild, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, Hynix, and many other Silicon Valley electronics companies have changed the world. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Hynix, in particular, have established themselves as world leaders in memory semiconductors, contributing significantly to the growth of the South Korean economy. The semiconductor industry is no longer just a technology industry, but an important one that is directly related to the economic competitiveness of countries. By controlling the invisible flow of electrons, semiconductors have created a new era and revolutionized the economy, making them one of the most powerful and small forces that have changed the world.
