ELCT 563 – Semiconductor Electronic Devices

ELCT 563 – Semiconductor Electronic Devices

Grigory Simin
[email protected]





Course textbook:

Solid State Electronic Devices
by Ben Streetman
ISBN: 9780131497269

Additional reading:

Getting to Know Semiconductors
by M. E. Levinshtein, G. S. Simin

World Scientific Pub Co.
ISBN: 9810207603

Transistors:
From Crystals to Integrated Circuits

by M. E. Levinshtein, G. S. Simin
World Scientific Pub Co.
ISBN: 9810227434

ELCT 563 Goals and Objectives
Why taking ELCT 563?

To get 3 credit hours
To make your advisor (boss) happy

Other reasons?

Old economic wisdom

Adam Smith, "An Enquiry into Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations" (1776)
The wealth is created by a laissez-faire economy and free trade

John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of
Employment, Interest, and Money (1936)

The wealth is created by careful government planning and
government stimulation of economy.

Modern economic wisdom

Paul Romer, an economist and professor at
Stanford University (1990s)

The wealth is created by innovations and inventions,
such as computer chips.

Electronic industry is now
the largest industry in the US
Electronic industry produces 106 - 107 transistors per
person per year

Semiconductor devices are WIDELY used

Solid state Lighting

What are the different semiconductor devices?

~800 pages; Microwave devices:

data on over Varactors, Schottky diodes,
180 devices transit time devices,
(only main bipolar junction transistors
device types (BJTs), heterostructure
included) bipolar transistors (HBTs),
MOSFETs, MESFETs, and
high electron mobility
transistors (HEMTs).

Time required to learn all of these devices
one-by-one: lifetime

What are the different semiconductor devices?

Number of key device

Number of device types: Thousands concepts:

10 - 20

Alternative approach: learn the key concepts.
Time required: One semester (ELCT 563)

Seebeck History of Semiconductors

von Siemens

1821: Thomas Seebeck discovered semiconductor
properties of PbS

1833: Michael Faraday reported on conductivity
temperature dependence of semiconductors

1875: Werner von Siemens invented a selenium photometer
1878: Alexander Graham Bell used this device for wireless

optical communications
1907 Round demonstrated the first LED (using SiC)

1940 Russell Ohl discovered a p-n junction diode

History of Semiconductors
Russell Ohl – Inventor of a p-n junction (1940)

In 1939, vacuum tubes were state of the art in
radio equipment. Most scientists agreed tubes
were the future for radio and telephones
everywhere.

Russell Ohl didn't agree. He kept right on
studying crystals, occasionally having to fight
Bell Labs administration to let him do it.

History of Semiconductors

1947: Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley discovered a
Bipolar Junction transistor

"The Transistor was probably the
most important invention of the 20th
Century…”

The American Institute of Physics

Transistors

First First Integrated Intel’s 1.7 Billion
Transistor, Circuit, Transistor Chip
1958
1947 2004

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1956

More recent history

1954, Chapin, Fuller, and Pearson developed a solar cell.
1958, John Kilby, invented the Integrated Circuit (IC).
1958, Leo Esaki discovered a tunnel diode (Esaki diode).
1960, Kahng and Atalla demonstrated the first MOSFET.
1962, three groups headed by Hall, Nathan, and Quist

demonstrated a semiconductor laser.
1963, Gunn discovered microwave oscillations in GaAs and

InP (Ridley-Watkins-Hilsum-Gunn effect).
1963, Wanlass and Sah introduced CMOS technology

After: crepuscule.sourceforge.net/archive5.html
109
108
107
106
105
104

1972 1977 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007

Transistor technology evolution

1995 WHAT IS CMOS?
WHY SO MUCH?
Power PC 620 (Apple, IBM, and Motorola) WHY SO SMALL?
• 0.5 micron CMOS technology,
• 133 MHz clock rate
• 7 million transistors
• 3.3 V power supply
• 30 W power dissipation

2007: 45 nm technology WHY high-k dielectric?

ELCT 563
is one of the core courses in the department of

electrical engineering.
The students will gain understanding and will be able

to solve problems on basic semiconductor material
properties, principles and characteristics of

semiconductor p-n junction and Schottky diodes,
field-effect transistors (JFETs, MESFETs, and
MOSFETs), and bipolar junction transistors.

ELCT563 Syllabus

Topic Text book
1. Basic properties of semiconductors reference*

Ch. 3, 4

2. Junctions, diodes and contacts Ch. 5

3. Field-Effect transistors Ch. 6
(JFET, MESFET, HEMT, MOSFET) Ch. 7

4. Bipolar junction transistors

5. Optoelectronic devices Ch. 8

6. Integrated circuits Ch. 9

7. Microwave and high-power devices Ch. 10
(Tunnel diode, Gunn diode, Thyristor)

* Additional course material can also be used and will appear in the class notes.