The student should be able to explain the following concepts: energy band diagrams and their importance for devices; the drift-diffusion equations; "depletion approximation" and charge conservation; threshold voltage.
He/she should be able to explain the formation of the pn-junction diode at thermal equilibrium, the rectifying behavior of the pn-junction diode, the formation of the MOS capacitor at thermal equilibrium. He/she should be able to model the current flow through the pn-junction diode in steady state condition, and the current flow through the MOSFET in steady state condition and apply Gauss’ law in a semiconductor for determining the electric field/potential. Finally, the student should be able to explain the advantage of using semiconductor devices in microelectronics and evaluate the limiting factors in electrical performance of classical semiconductor devices, and come up with possible improvements.
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Microelectronics strongly affects our daily life. The amount of integrated microelectronic circuits (ICs) rises drastically in many applications such as automotive, telecommunication, health care, portable computing and internet (ICT). In addition there is a continuous trend in increasing the complexity of the basic electronics building block, the microchip, realized in advanced CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology, partly driven by the desire for increasing functionality. The microchip is formed by several key components, basically semiconductor devices. This course describes the physical working of these basic semiconductor devices and translates those to electrical characteristics.
It covers an introduction to the classical electron devices: the pn-junction and the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET). The physical working is illustrated using diagrams of energy, electric field, electrical potential and concentration, and the principal formulae for the simplified devices are treated. After the lectures and tutorials the students should understand the limits of the electrical performance of classical devices and should perform a literature survey on how to tackle these. Finally, they should write a 5-10 pages report about their findings.
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