ECE 60600 - Solid State Devices I

Course Details

Lecture Hours: 3 Credits: 3

Areas of Specialization:

  • Microelectronics and Nanotechnology

Counts as:

Normally Offered:

Each Fall, Spring

Campus/Online:

On-campus and online

Catalog Description:

A relatively-broad moderate-depth coverage of semiconductor devices and related topics. The first portion of the course presents and examines semiconductor fundamentals required in the operational analysis of microelectronic devices. Next, PN junction and Metal-Semiconductor diode theory is reviewed, followed by analyses of the Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) and Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT). The final portion of the course treats the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Capacitor (MOS-C) and Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET).

Required Text(s):

  1. Advanced Semiconductor Fundamentals, Vol. VI in the Modular Series on Solid State Devices , 2nd Edition , R. F. Pierret , Prentice-Hall , 2002 , ISBN No. 978-0130617927
  2. Semiconductor Device Fundamentals , R. F. Pierret , Addison-Wesley , 1996 , ISBN No. 978-0201543933

Recommended Text(s):

None.

Learning Outcomes

  • Select material systems for specific device performance and device designs.
  • Understand the origin of bandstructure and devise methods to design bandstructure through material composition, strain, and quantization effects.
  • Draw band diagrams for any typical electronic device and infer device operations and device capabilities from such diagrams.
  • Fundamentally understand and have a mental picture for holes, electrons, density of states, doping, minority carriers, occupation, Fermi Level, Quasi-Fermi Level, and associate specific device performance given a specific band diagram or device configuration
  • Utilize the set of semiconductor equations to compute electron and hole densities and to design classical devices such as diodes, transistors, etc.
  • Explain the concepts associated with thermally activated carrier distributions in doped homojunctions and heterojunctions and devise methods to optimize device performance.
  • Fundamentally understand PN-Junctions, BJTs, HBTs, MOScaps, and MOSFETs in their performance limits and be able to expand on existing design concepts to improve performance.
  • Understand typical quantum effects in modern devices such as tunneling and state quantization and devise methods to alleviate negative impact or utilize these quantum effects for new devices.

Lecture Outline:

Week Major Topics
1 Course introduction, semiconducting materials, crystals
2 Elements of quantum mechanics; analytical solutions to free and bound electrons
3 Electron tunneling - emergence of bandstructure; bandstructure in 1D periodic potentials
4 Brillouin zone and reciprocal lattice; constant energy surfaces and density of states; bandstructure in real materials (Si, Ge, GaAs)
5 Bandstructure measurements; occupation of states; band diagrams
6 Doping; introduction to non-equilibrium
7 Recombination and generation
8 Intro to transport - drift, mobility, diffusion, Einstein relationship; semiconductor equations
9 Introduction to PN junctions; PN diode I-V characteristics
10 PN diode AC response; PN diode large signal response; Schottky diode
11 MOS electrostatics and MOScap; MOS capacitor signal response; MOSFET introduction
12 MOSFET non-idealities; modern MOSFET
13 Bipolar junction transistors fundamentals
14 Bipolar junction transistor design

Assessment Method:

Homework, quizzes, projects, exam. (3/2022)