Fundamentals of Transistors (edX)

This is a course on how this scientifically interesting and technologically important device operates. The course is designed for anyone seeking a sound, physical, intuitive understanding of how modern transistors operate. Important technology considerations and applications of transistors are also discussed. The focus is on MOSFETs for digital logic, but analog applications and other types of transistors are briefly considered.

This course is broadly accessible to students with only a very basic knowledge of semiconductor physics and electronic circuits. Topics include device metrics for digital and analog circuits, traditional MOSFET theory, the virtual source model, 1D and 2D electrostatics, Landauer/transmission approach to nanotransistors, the limits of MOSFETs, as well as a quick look at HEMTs, bipolar transistors, and compact circuit models. The course should be useful for advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, as well as practicing engineers and scientists.

This course is part of a Purdue initiative that aims to complement the expertise that students develop with the breadth at the edges needed to work effectively in today's multidisciplinary environment. These serious short courses require few prerequisites and provide a general framework that can be filled in with self-study when needed.

Students taking this course will be required to complete two (2) proctored exams using the edX online Proctortrack software.

Completed exams will be scanned and sent using Gradescope for grading by Professor Lundstrom.

Fundamentals of Transistors is one course in a growing suite of unique, 1-credit-hour short courses being developed in an edX/Purdue University collaboration. Students may elect to pursue a verified certificate for this specific course alone or as one of the six courses needed for the edX/Purdue MicroMasters program in Nanoscience and Technology. For further information and other courses offered and planned, please see the Nanoscience and Technology page. Courses like this can also apply toward a Purdue University MSECE degree for students accepted into the full master’s program.

This course is part of the Nanoscience and Technology MicroMasters.

What you'll learn

- MOSFET IV characteristics and device metrics and how to analyze measured transistor characteristics and extract key device parameters.

- The physical operation of transistors and the traditional theory of the MOSFET.

- 1D/2D/3D MOS electrostatics and the need for advanced MOSFET structures such as the FinFET.

- How modern transport theory (the transmission approach) is applied to nanoscale MOSFETs.

- How other transistors, such as HEMTs and bipolar transistors, operate.

- What a physics-based compact model is and the role they play in electronic design.

Prerequisites: A basic understanding of semiconductors as typically taught in an undergraduate or beginning graduate level semiconductor device course is assumed. No familiarity with electronics or transistors is assumed, but those with such a background will gain an understanding of how nanoscale transistors differ from their micrometer scale cousins.

Syllabus

Unit 1: Transistors and Circuits

L1.1: The MOSFET as a Black Box

L1.2: Digital Circuits

L1.3: Analog/RF Circuits

L1.4: MOSFET Device Metrics

L1.5: Compact Models

L1.6: Unit 1 Recap

Unit 2: Essential Physics of the MOSFET

L2.1: Energy Band Diagram Review

L2.2: Energy Band View of MOSFETs

L2.3: MOSFET IV Theory

L2.4: The Square Law MOSFET

L2.5: The Virtual Source model

L2.6: Unit 2 Recap

Unit 3: MOS Electrostatics

L3.1: The Energy Band Diagram Approach

L3.2: The Depletion Approximation

L3.3: Gate Voltage and Surface Potential

L3.4 Flat-Band Voltage

L3.5: MOS CV

L3.6: The Mobile Charge vs. Surface Potential

L3.7: The Mobile Charge vs. Gate Voltage

L3.8: 2D MOS Electrostatics

L3.9: The VS model revisited

L3.10: Unit 3 Recap

Unit 4: Transmission theory of the MOSFET

L4.1: Landauer Approach

L4.2: Landauer at Low and High Bias

L4.3 The Ballistic MOSFET

L4.4 Velocity at the Virtual Source

L4.5: Transmission Theory of the MOSFET

L4.6: The VS model Revisited

L4.7: Analysis of Experiments

L4.8: Unit 4 Recap

Unit 5: Additional Topics

L5.1: Limits of MOSFETs

L5.2: Power MOSFETs

L5.3: High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs)

L5.4: Review of PN Junctions

L5.5: Heterostructure Bipolar Transistors (HBTs)

L5.6: A Second Look at Compact models

L5.7: Unit 5 RecapL5.5: Compact models - another look