Integrated circuits are finding wider applications through a range of industries: as well as computers, they now play an important role in automobiles, manufacturing machinery and scientific instruments. This has been possible because of the greater variety of integrated circuits that are being put on even smaller chips with an increasing level of integration. This introduction presents the design principles for devices, describes the overall VLSI process, and goes on to deal with the essential manufacturing technologies and inspection procedures. Particular attention is given to achieving the high quality needed for reliable products. The final chapter is devoted to highlighting the range of unresolved problems in VLSI processing as the scale of integration grows, and providing pointers towards possible solutions.