This book examines the physical principles behind the operation of
high-speed transistors operating at frequencies above 10 GHz and having
switching times less than 100 psec. If the 1970s cannot be remembered
for the opportunities for creating and extensively using transistors
operating at such high speeds, then, the situation has changed radically
because of rapid progress in sub micrometer technology for manufacturing
transistors and integrated circuits from GaAs and other semiconductor
materials and the powerful influx of new physical concepts. Not only
have transistors having switching speeds of 50-100 psec operating in the
10-20 GHz region been created in recent years, but the possibilities for
manufacturing transistors operating one to two orders of magnitude
faster have been revealed. As superhigh-speed transistors have been
created, many of the most important areas of technology such as
communications, computing technology, television, radar, and the
manufacture of scientific, industrial, and medical equipment have
qualitatively changed. Microwave transistors operating at millimeter
wavelengths make it possible to produce compact and highly efficient
equipment for communications and radar technology. Transistors with
switching speeds better than 10-100 psec make it possible to increase
the speed of microprocessors and other computer components to tens of
billions of operations per second and thereby solve one of the most
pressing problems of modern electronics - increasing the speed of
digital information processing.
