ELECTRONIC MATERIALS INFORMATION CENTRE

Abstract

The production of electronic materials and the design and manufacture of electronic devices is now such a sophisticated industry that within it there exist three fairly distinct technologies, and scientists working in this industry tend to belong to one of the following three groups. First there are the materials scientists, who work on the preparation of single crystals, the formation of p‐n junctions, the growth of epitaxial layers, the deposition of thin films. Secondly there are those who work on materials assessment, carrying out electrical measurements to determine carrier concentration, lifetime, etc., or using optical and electron microscopes, microprobe analysers and mass spectrometers to investigate the properties of electronic materials and to assess their device potential. Thirdly there are the device engineers, who design and manufacture a vast range of solid‐state devices. These three groups are strongly interdependent and one simplified way of looking at the relationships between them is to consider the materials scientists as producers, the device engineers as consumers, with the materials assessment group acting as a consumer association. Within this system the EMIC seeks to act as an intermediary and to connect the demand to the supply, but not to act as a retailer.