VLSI Technology

Rating:
Summary: Not a book but a collection of review articles
Review: The problem with the book is that it is not a book at all: it is a collection of 12 articles which vary enormously in their style and level. Some are excellent, like Richard Fair's RTP chapter, but many are run-of-the-mill reviews. A welcomed addition is that wafer cleaning and clean room technology have chapters of their own, usually they tend to be regarded as side issues. Editors have not syncronized the chapters: planarization is discussed twice: in both CVD and process integration chapters and silicides three times: in RTP, metallization and process integration.

The book is not specifically about ULSI: it is a general overview of silicon (mostly MOS) process technologies, or at least I do not consider molecular beam epitaxy, contact lithography or bias sputtered quartz as ULSI technologies. Maybe this is for textbook completeness, but then why is oxidation absent ?

The intended audience of this book remains a mystery to me: in the preface it is described as a textbook (for senior undergraduates or first year graduate students) but the structure of the book does not support a fabrication course because many essential items have been left out: e.g. oxidation and ion implantation.

Most chapters contain 50-100 references to literature, but to old literature: process integration chapter ("totally revised and updated") average date of references is 1987, with only a handful of 1990's articles.

Rating:
Summary: Must have for semiconductor industry and students
Review: This book is another excellent work from Sze. All the technologically important points have been well covered by Sze. Finally a must have for technologists working and students interested in the field of ULSI.

Rating:
Summary: Sze did not write this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This book is merely a collection of articles written by various authorities in the field. Sze probably put the end of chapter problems in it (most of which are challenging) which do not closely reflect the chapter's theme. In that sense, this is a BAD book - the correlation is awful. As far as just reading the chapters, some of the chapters are well written and this book merits 3 stars. I think it is safe to say there are better books (real textbooks by one or two authors) out there pertaining to the field of VLSI Fabrication.