Behind every smartphone, supercomputer, and modern scientific instrument lies the triumph of solid-state physics: the semiconductor microchip.
With transistor gate lengths shrunk down to single-digit nanometers, modern silicon fabrication relies on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and precise quantum tunneling control. The manipulation of energy band gaps in doped semiconductors revolutionized the 20th and 21st centuries, compressing billions of logic gates into an area smaller than a postage stamp.