Silicon on Insulator is more than a technology, more than a job, and
more than a venture in microelectronics; it is something different and
refreshing in device physics. This book recalls the activity and enthu-
siasm of our SOl groups. Many contributing students have since then
disappeared from the SOl horizon. Some of them believed that SOl was the
great love of their scientific lives; others just considered SOl as a
fantastic LEGO game for adults. We thank them all for kindly letting us
imagine that we were guiding them. This book was very necessary to many
people. SOl engineers will certainly be happy: indeed, if the
performance of their SOl components is not always outstanding, they can
now safely incriminate the relations given in the book rather than their
process. Martine, Gunter, and Y. S. Chang can contemplate at last the
amount of work they did with the figures. Our SOl accomplices already
know how much we borrowed from their expertise and would find it
indecent to have their detailed contri- butions listed. Jean-Pierre and
Dimitris incited the book, while sharing their experience in the
reliability of floating bodies. Our families and friends now realize the
SOl capability of dielectrically isolating us for about two years in a
BOX. Our kids encouraged us to start writing. Our wives definitely gave
us the courage to stop writing. They had a hard time fighting the
symptoms of a rapidly developing SOl allergy.