Detection of Emerging Technologies for Field Effect Transistors: A Citation-Based Analysis

Field Effect Transistors (FET) are used as switching and amplifying devices due to their fast switching and voltage blocking capabilities, and are important as energy-efficient devices. However, no academic landscape of FET exists. In this study, we investigated the existence of academic publications in relation to this field by analyzing the citation network of papers published in academic journals. Using a topological-based method, all the papers were categorized into clusters based on their own specific topics. We categorized all the papers into clusters, and found some rapidly developing research domains. To compare the research situation of each country, a matrix was created. Based on the data, 11 countries are classified into three categories that focus on the 'Emerging technology area', 'Intermediate technology area' or 'Mature technology area'. As a result, the share of the Emerging technology area of Japan is lower than that of the Intermediate technology area and the Mature technology area. This is partly because big discoveries by Japanese researchers, for example, conducting polymer, have a huge impact on Japanese research policy and make policy makers focus on Japanese-dominated research fields. This may indicate that policymakers should pay more attention to non-Japan-dominated research fields.