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Topic · Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Semiconductor materials and devices

Semiconductor materials and devices is a research topic within Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Science Explorer counts 146k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the advances in atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology, particularly in the context of high-k dielectrics, gate oxides, and semiconductor devices. It covers topics such as thin film growth, dielectric breakdown mechanisms, metal gate transistors, interface engineering, and the impact of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) degradation on device performance.

  • Atomic Layer Deposition
  • High-k Dielectrics
  • Gate Oxides
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Nanoelectronics
  • Thin Film Growth
  • Dielectric Breakdown
  • Metal Gate Transistors
  • Interface Engineering
  • NBTI Degradation
Research works
146k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
14k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+3%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
35% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Semiconductor materials and devices

Which countries lead Semiconductor materials and devices research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (4.5k and 2.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4.5k works
  2. 2 United States 2.1k works
  3. 3 India 1.6k works
  4. 4 South Korea 1.2k works
  5. 5 Japan 935 works
  6. 6 Germany 720 works
  7. 7 Taiwan 543 works
  8. 8 France 532 works
  9. 9 Russia 359 works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 291 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 35.1%United States: 16.4%India: 12.3%South Korea: 9.7%6 others listed: 26.4%35%largest
China4,484 · 35.1%United States2,091 · 16.4%India1,577 · 12.3%South Korea1,245 · 9.7%6 others listed3,379 · 26.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Semiconductor materials and devices research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Semiconductor materials and devices research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Samsung (South Korea).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 492 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 211 works
  3. 3 Samsung (South Korea)South Korea 147 works
  4. 4 Peking UniversityChina 138 works
  5. 5 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 136 works
  6. 6 Xidian UniversityChina 134 works
  7. 7 IMECBelgium 131 works
  8. 8 National Yang Ming Chiao Tung UniversityTaiwan 119 works
  9. 9 Zhejiang UniversityChina 100 works
  10. 10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 98 works

Who are the leading researchers in Semiconductor materials and devices?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Semiconductor materials and devices include Zhong Lin Wang, Michaël Grätzel and Georg Kresse.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Michaël Grätzel Switzerland 458k citations
  3. 3 Georg Kresse Austria 431k citations
  4. 4 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  5. 5 Andre K. Geim United Kingdom 315k citations
  6. 6 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  7. 7 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  8. 8 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  9. 9 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  10. 10 M. Weber Israel 267k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Semiconductor materials and devices?

The most cited paper in Semiconductor materials and devices is "QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials" (Paolo Giannozzi et al., 2009), with 29,445 citations. Next come "Spintronics: A Spin-Based Electronics Vision for the Future" (11,490) and "Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications" (11,330).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials Paolo Giannozzi et al. · Journal of Physics Condensed Matter Open access Sep 2009 29,445
2 Spintronics: A Spin-Based Electronics Vision for the Future Stefan Wolf, D. D. Awschalom, Robert A. Buhrman et al. · Science 16 Nov 2001 11,490
3 Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications Igor Žutić, Jaroslav Fabian, Sankar Das Sarma · Reviews of Modern Physics Open access 23 Apr 2004 11,330
4 A roadmap for graphene Kostya S. Novoselov, Vladimir I. Fal’ko, Luigi Colombo et al. · Nature Oct 2012 9,276
5 Band parameters for III–V compound semiconductors and their alloys I. Vurgaftman, Jerry R. Meyer, L. R. Ram‐Mohan · Journal of Applied Physics Jun 2001 7,350
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Semiconductor materials and devices research done?

The largest centres of Semiconductor materials and devices research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Santa Clara.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1k works
  2. 2 SeoulSouth Korea 700 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 413 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 347 works
  5. 5 TokyoJapan 282 works
  6. 6 HsinchuTaiwan 263 works
  7. 7 NanjingChina 200 works
  8. 8 WuhanChina 172 works
  9. 9 ChengduChina 171 works
  10. 10 LeuvenBelgium 169 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Santa ClaraUS · 88.7 works23×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Semiconductor materials and devices than the world average.

See Semiconductor materials and devices on the map

Where is the best place to study Semiconductor materials and devices?

Among universities, judged by research, Hanyang University, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 14.77%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →King Abdullah Univer…Hanyang UniversityKorea Advanced Insti…Peking University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hanyang UniversitySouth Korea 65.017.9%14.0×82 +35.0%
2Korea Advanced Institute of Science and TechnologySouth Korea 62.916.6%10.2×65 +19.6%
3King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologySaudi Arabia 62.718.6%5.5×20 +94.1%
4Peking UniversityChina 62.611.2%5.0×138 +45.5%
5Pohang University of Science and TechnologySouth Korea 62.615.3%19.9×57 +40.8%
6Xidian UniversityChina 60.69.4%13.8×134 +34.9%
7National University of SingaporeSingapore 60.618.0%2.9×47 +32.5%
8University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 60.212.8%4.5×98 +18.2%
9Tsinghua UniversityChina 59.815.4%2.8×88 +76.8%
10Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 59.412.5%4.2×97 +42.4%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Semiconductor materials and devices, country by country

Is Semiconductor materials and devices research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 3% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2002. The fastest-growing topics are Semiconductor materials and devices.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Semiconductor materials and devices as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.072% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%Semiconductor materials and devices0.063% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Semiconductor materials and devices over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%Semiconductor materials and devices9.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Questions people ask

Which countries lead semiconductor research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (4.5k and 2.1k works in 2022-now).

Which countries lead Semiconductor materials and devices research?
All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

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