Book excerpt: Silicon-on-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI, Third Edition, retraces the evolution of SOI materials, devices and circuits over a period of roughly twenty years. Twenty years of progress, research and development during which SOI material fabrication techniques have been born and abandoned, devices have been invented and forgotten, but, most importantly, twenty years during which SOI Technology has little by little proven it could outperform bulk silicon in every possible way. The turn of the century turned out to be a milestone for the semiconductor industry, as high-quality SOI wafers suddenly became available in large quantities. From then on, it took only a few years to witness the use of SOI technology in a wealth of applications ranging from audio amplifiers and wristwatches to 64-bit microprocessors. This book presents a complete and state-of-the-art review of SOI materials, devices and circuits. SOI fabrication and characterization techniques, SOI CMOS processing, and the physics of the SOI MOSFET receive an in-depth analysis. Silicon-on-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI, Third Edition, also describes the properties of other SOI devices, such as multiple gate MOSFETs, dynamic threshold devices and power MOSFETs. The advantages and performance of SOI circuits used in both niche and mainstream applications are discussed in detail. The SOI specialist will find this book invaluable as a source of compiled references covering the different aspects of SOI technology. For the non-specialist, the book serves an excellent introduction to the topic with detailed, yet simple and clear explanations. Silicon-on-Insulator Technology: Materials to VLSI, Third Edition is recommended for use as a textbook for classes on semiconductor device processing and physics at the graduate level.