Where do the semiconductor geeks hangout?

[Gumbysauce]

I love semiconductors and other electronic materials. Where do the people who also love this stuff hangout? Its a pretty important topic in Electrical Engineering, do we have a section for it here on EEVBlog? If we don't, can we get a section?   I know that many people on EEVblog fit into the "maker" category and probably aren't super interested in the physics of the devices they use, but its still very valuable information and I would love to get connected with a community of like-minded folks.

Thanks guys.

[jonovid]

here    just post it 

[Gumbysauce]

Alright, if you guys are down to start a discussion, I'll try to start something. What do you guys think of TCSs? (Transition metal chalcogenide semicondutors) For those that don't know, these are 2d semiconductors, like graphene, if graphene was a semiconductor. It seems like there is a significant amount of effort going into developing electronic devices utilizing these materials, but recently I have been wondering if this effort is perhaps misguided? For one thing it is extremely difficult to create oxide layers on these materials, making the creation of 2d MOSFETs nearly impossible without AFM level precision. Recently, however, there have been many interesting discoveries regarding these materials optoelectronic properties. I have a hunch that these materials are not particularly suitable for traditional electronics, but may lead to some very interesting devices in the realm of photonics. Do you guys have any experience with these materials? Do you think that they have properties that are worth the time and effort of exploring?

Sorry if this is a rather esoteric topic, just the first thing that came to mind.

[Gumbysauce]

It would appear that we semiconductor freaks are a rare breed on the internet. 

[Ampera]

Germanium is the supreme pure element.

[coppice]

TCS might be a little too much blue skies research for most people in this forum. Advanced semiconductors actually flowing into production, like GAN and SiC, interest a number of people in this forum.

[jonovid]

welcome to the forum, Oppps! im a spectator. r u  I like looking at semiconductor images.
 gust give it time  the semiconductor freaks are here on the forums somewhere over the bond wire rainbow.
Dave did post this.

its RF, the inductors must be in the links  capacitors the pads?
i like to see the RF front end of a 2G or 3G call phone.

[Gumbysauce]

Okay, yeah. Although my skills tend to lie more on the "blue skies" side of things (organic semiconductors, conductive polymers, TCS, etc.) I have been developing an interest in 3-5s, specifically how high frequency ICs are developed using these materials. For example, in high end oscilloscope tear downs we often see the front end ICs built with 3-5s. Ill try that... @jonovid, I saw that! Super interesting IC, as TSP noted in the comments, this was probably not a very fast IC, like 1GHZ. Its interesting to note that there doesn't seem to be many passive components on the die. If there were any inductors I think we would see something like this:
 .
Especially on such an archaic process. I wonder what kind of logic they were performing with this device. It an RF test chip is from some kind of old particle detector, right? I doubt that it was for any kind of wireless application, so if i had to take a guess it might be for testing some of the front end particle detection circuits. Anyone have any insight into what these sort of test chips are used for?

[Gumbysauce]

I've noticed, it's a very difficult field to embed yourself in. Most of the professors I've talked to are too self absorbed to care and the few that are open to an enthusiastic young person like myself are so busy that there is no way for them to help you learn about such a complex field. And the few PhD students that I know are usually either dead inside, or so tired that if you blow on them the wrong way they will fall flat on their faces. So, yeah, trying a new approach to getting involved.

[Gumbysauce]

It's difficult to ask any specific questions, as I have no experience with power devices. But if you would be willing to suggest a few resources to learn about these devices, that would be great.  I have access to most scientific publications through my school library, so I should be able to access most things. Thank you.

[Gumbysauce]

Perfect. I have access to the e-book through my school's library. Thanks so much!