Silicon Earth

We are in the swirling center of the most life-changing technological revolution the Earth has ever known. In only 60 years, an eye-blink of human history, a single technological invention has launched the proverbial thousand ships, producing the most sweeping and pervasive set of changes ever to wash over humankind; changes that are reshaping the very core of human existence, on a global scale, at a relentlessly accelerating pace. And we are just at the very beginning. Silicon Earth introduces readers with little or no background to the many marvels of microelectronics and nanotechnology, using easy, non-intimidating language, with an intuitive approach using minimal math. The general scientific and engineering underpinnings of microelectronics and nanotechnology are addressed, as well as how this new technological revolution is transforming a broad array of interdisciplinary fields, and civilization as a whole. Special ‘widget deconstruction’ chapters address the inner workings of ubiquitous micro/nano-enabled pieces of technology such as cell phones, flash drives, GPS, DVDs, and digital cameras.

Spis treści:
1. The communications revolution
2. A matter of scale
3. Widget deconstruction #1, cell phone
4. Innumerable biographies, a brief history of micro/nanoelectronics
5. Semiconductors – lite!
6. Widget deconstruction #2, USB flash drive
7. Bricks and mortar, micro/nanoelectronics fabrication
8. Transistors – lite!
9. Microtools and toys, MEMS, NEMS, and BioMEMS
10. Widget deconstruction #3, GPS
11. Let there be light, the bright world of photonics
12. The nano-world, fact and fiction
13. The gathering storm, societal transformations and some food-for-thought
Appendix.