Semiconductors and the Information Revolution: Magic Crystals that made IT Happen

As the author of this book, I would simply like to explain its purpose. The information revolution has turned western civilisation on its head, an aspect I try to illustrate in the first chapter by reminding readers of the very many ways in which their everyday lives are affected by modern day electronic marvels. All this is based on a range of special materials called 'semiconductors' whose essential properties I also outline in Chapter 1. The rest of the book provides a history of semiconductors from their early years in the eighteenth century through the key development of the transistor at Bell Telephone Labs in 1947, followed by that of the integrated circuit and a whole plethora of other devices such as the semiconductor laser. The essence of the book is one of plotting the relationships between semiconductor materials, semiconductor physics, semiconductor devices and their numerous applications. These applications include computing, power control, light emitting diodes, the compact disc, the DVD, microwave radar, fibre-optic communications, night vision, flat screen TV and photovoltaic solar energy systems. The book describes all these developments in simple terms, without using mathematics. It makes a wonderful story which should be readily understood by a wide range of readers.John Orton

John Orton, in his preface, assures the reader that his book should be intelligible to the general public and layman who is prepared to make a serious effort, if only because all the mathemathics, available in an earlier edition, has been now removed. In fact, the book is a good example of the fact that simply writing about science and technology in a non mathematical way does not necessarily ensure clarity, particularly to any reader not possessing the appropriate scientific background.Basic questions are not always answered. For example, the concept of "electronic" is not fully defined - in particular how exactly does "electronic" differ from "electro-mechanical"? And neither term is to be found in the glossary at the back of the book. Again, while the author gives a detailed comparison between metals and semiconductors, the reader never gets a succinct and clear explanation of just why semiconductors, rather than other elements such as metals, were so suitable for the operation of computers.This is not to deny that Orton's book is a serious work with interesting material to offer. In particular, there is much such material dealing with the historical background - the 19th and 20th century up to the launching of the integrated circuit around 1960 - chapters 2, 3 and the first 14 pages of chapter 4 (pp. 31-108.) But even here, questions are not always answered clearly, such as just why William Shockley's junction transistor became so relevant only with the advent of the integrated circuit (pp. 79 and 103).As for the remaining ten chapters of the book, even to obtain a a very partial, limited understanding of the detailed and dense information at hand requires excessive effort and patience, not to mention time. Caveat emptor!