Semiconductor are everywhere in human activities, from your credit card to space exploration. This graduate-level introduction brings aspects of physics, chemistry, and engineering together to understand, analyze, and design transistors and solar cells. This course provides the graduate-level introduction to understand, analyze, characterize and design the operation of semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes, solar cells, light-emitting devices, and more.
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The material will primarily appeal to electrical engineering students whose interests are in applications of semiconductor devices in circuits and systems. The treatment is physics-based, provides derivations of the mathematical descriptions, and enables students to quantitatively analyze device internal processes, analyze device performance, and begin the design of devices given specific performance criteria.
Technology users will gain an understanding of the semiconductor physics that is the basis for devices. Semiconductor technology developers may find it a useful starting point for diving deeper into condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and materials science. The course presents an electrical engineering perspective on semiconductors, but those in other fields may find it a useful introduction to the approach that has guided the development of semiconductor technology for the past 50+ years.
Students taking this course will be required to complete:
- three (3) proctored exams using the edX online Proctortrack software.
- thirteen (13) weekly homework assignments.
- thirty (30) online quizzes are spread throughout the 15-week semester.
- Completed exams and homework will be scanned and submitted using Gradescope for grading.
What you'll learn
With the completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the working principles of these devices.
- Explain the physical processes in these devices.
- Relate the device performance to materials and design criteria.
- Speak the "language" of device engineers.
- Be ready to engage in device research
Syllabus
Week1
1 Course Introduction
2 Materials
3 Crystals
Week 2:
4 Elements of Quantum Mechanics
5 Analytical Solutions to Free and Bound Electrons
Week 3
6 Electron Tunneling – Emergence of Bandstructure
7 Bandstructure – in 1D Periodic Potentials
Week 4
8 Brillouin Zone and Reciprocal Lattice
9 Constant Energy Surfaces & Density of States
10 Bandstructure in Real Materials (Si, Ge, GaAs)
Week 5
11 Bandstructure Measurements
12 Occupation of States
13 Band Diagrams
Week 6
14 Doping
15 Introduction to Non-Equilibrium
Week 7
16 Recombination & Generation
Week 8
17 Intro to Transport - Drift, Mobility, Diffusion, Einstein Relationship
18 Semiconductor Equations
Week 9
19 Introduction to PN Junctions
20 PN Diode I-V Characteristics
Week 10
21 PN Diode AC Response
22 PN Diode Large Signal Response
23 Schottky Diode
Week 11
24 Bipolar Junction Transistor - Fundamentals
25 Bipolar Junction Transistor - Design
26 Bipolar Junction Transistor – High Frequency Response
Week 12
27 Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor
28 MOS Electrostatics & MOScap
Week 13
29 MOS Capacitor Signal Response
30 MOSFET Introduction
Week 14
31 MOSFET Non-Idealities
Week 15
32 Modern MOSFET
Prerequisites
Graduate standing in engineering and physics. At different points we will use vector algebra, differential equations, and some mathematical scripting languages will be helpful in some assignments (e.g. Python, Jupyter, MATLAB, octave). You may want to review these topics.
