Book excerpt: This book presents materials fundamentals of novel gate dielectrics that are being introduced into semiconductor manufacturing to ensure the continuous scalling of the CMOS devices. This is a very fast evolving field of research so we choose to focus on the basic understanding of the structure, thermodunamics, and electronic properties of these materials that determine their performance in device applications. Most of these materials are transition metal oxides. Ironically, the d-orbitals responsible for the high dielectric constant cause sever integration difficulties thus intrinsically limiting high-k dielectrics. Though new in the electronics industry many of these materials are wel known in the field of ceramics, and we describe this unique connection. The complexity of the structure-property relations in TM oxides makes the use of the state of the art first-principles calculations necessary. Several chapters give a detailed description of the modern theory of polarization, and heterojunction band discontinuity within the framework of the density functional theory. Experimental methods include oxide melt solution calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry, Raman scattering and other optical characterization techniques, transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Many of the problems encounterd in the world of CMOS are also relvant for other semiconductors such as GaAs. A comprehensive review of recent developments in this field is thus also given. The book should be of interest to those actively engaged in the gate dielectric research, and to graduate students in Materials Science, Materials Physics, Materials Chemistry, and Electrical Engineering.