Introduction

The history of the application of semiconductors for controlling currents goes back all the way to 1926, in which Julius Lilienfeld filed a patent for a “Method and apparatus for controlling electric currents” [1], which is considered the first work on metal/semiconductor field-effect transistors. More well-known is the work of William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in the 1940s [2, 3], after which the development of semiconductor devices commenced. In 1958, independent work from Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce led to the invention of integrated circuits. A few milestones in IC design are the first monolithic operational amplifier in 1963 (Fairchild µ A702, Bob Widlar) and the first one-chip 4-bit microprocessor in 1971 (Intel 4004).