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The article focuses on the materials for the fabrication of working nonlinear components. Materials include transition metals, multi-material composites and Group VI elements or chalcogenides. The article discusses the important role of the advances in fabrication techniques in the development of materials for use in these components. It also cites materials that exhibit negative differential resistance (NDR) including tunnel diode, gunn diode and varistor.

The article focuses on semiconductor building blocks including diodes and transistors which have been developed and fabricated in several forms and offers information on selection of diode for Radio Frequency (RF)/microwave application. Topics include fabrication of transistors from several chemical elements and compounds such as silicon (Si), types of diodes including Schottky-barrier, use of Gunn diodes to generate RF/microwave signals, and graphene as semiconductor material for transistors.