A possible upgrade of the CERN Large Hadron Collider luminosity up to 10^35 cm−2 s−1 will rise the hadron fluences in the inner detector region of the future high energy physics experiments up to 1016 cm−2, well beyond the present operational limits of state-of-art Si tracking detectors. The goal of the CERN RD50 collaboration is to push the semiconductor detector technology beyond these limits, through the development of radiation hard bulk materials and the optimisation of the electrode configuration of the device. Recent results of the RD50 collaboration concerning material engineering are presented.