3. Applications

It's not easy to pinpoint a particular field for the use of thin films in electronics, given the variety of applications and, as already mentioned, the fact that the notion of thin films itself is becoming blurred by other, more or less related fields.

Nevertheless, we can attempt to classify typical thin-film applications. We can then distinguish the following areas:

• the "traditional" field of thin films, i.e. certain analog circuits, encoders and all kinds of sensors, gauges, etc. ;

• the very specific field of microwave and radio frequency applications, for which in many cases only thin films provide the necessary performance;

• the current field of low-frequency, high-interconnection-density applications, essentially that of complex digital circuits,...