The first two chapters of this volume are concerned with the behavior of
two very different types of devices. We open with a full account by G. D.
Danilatos of a detector that has been developed for use in conjunction with the
environmental scanning electron microscope, already described by the same
author in Volume 71 of this series. A full analysis of the theory of this gaseous
detector has not hitherto been available and this careful study is therefore all
the more welcome.
In the second chapter, we meet a much more familiar device, the MOS
transistor. In order to understand the behavior of such transistors a very
detailed knowledge of carrier transport is required. S. C. Jain, K. H. Winters
and R. van Overstraeten first analyze bulk silicon and then turn to the weakinversion
region of a MOSFET. This meticulous and up-to-date survey will
surely be of great interest for future design studies of these transistors.