University of Utah

Semiconductor Device Physics I
Device Physics

MSE/ECE 5201 and 5211
Fall 2007

UU College of Engineering

We are said to now live in the Silicon Age. This course starts with the basic ideas from modern physics that describe the properties of silicon and other semiconductor materials, and then continues on to cover the principles behind devices used in integrated circuits. Approximately one-quarter of the course will be spent on semiconductor properties and physics, one-quarter on semiconductor junctions (2-terminal devices), and one-half on field effect and bipolar transistors (3-terminal devices). The course intends to provide the student with a basic understanding of several important semiconductor devices and to establish a background for understanding the present and future developments of the semiconductor devices at the heart of information technology. The lab course ECE/MSE5211 is a corequisite.

Instructor
Mark Miller (mark.miller@utah.edu)
Office: 314 EMRO. Phone: 587-7718
Office hours: WH 1:30 – 2:30
Teaching Assistant
Jonghwa Jeong (j.h.jeong AT utah.edu)
Office: TBA
Office hours:Tuesday and Thursday, TBA
Text Semiconductor Devices – Physics and Technology, 2nd ed., by S. M. Sze, Wiley (2002).

Lectures Tuesday and Thursday, 4:35 - 5:55, WEB 1250

lectures (reading) topics and activities
1 (1.1, 1.2) Course introduction and overview. Materials, properties, devices.
2 - 4 (2.1 - 2.5) Crystals, bonds, bands, materials classifications.
5, 6 (2.5 - 2.7) Band occupation; intrinsic carriers, doping.
7, 8 (3.1, 3.2) Charge carrier drift and diffusion.
9, 10 (3.3, 3.4) Carrier generation and recombination. Continuity equation.
11 (4.1) pn junction basics; fabrication, I-V, modeling
12 (4.2, 4.3) pn junction: Thermal equilibrium band diagram, depletion approximation.
13 (4.3, 4.4) pn diode capacitance, C-V characteristics.
Midterm Exam Topics through pn junction equilibrium band diagram.
14, 15 (4.5) pn diode I-V characteristics.
16 (4.6, 4.7) pn diode charge storage, transients, breakdowns.
17, 18 (6.1) MOSFETs; introduction, currents, MOS capacitors.
19, 20 (6.2) Basic MOSFET models, dc characteristics.
21 (5.1) BJT overview, currents, gains, modeling.
22, 23 (5.2) BJT dc characteristics.
24 (5.3) BJT transients, breakdowns.
25 (7.1) Metal-semiconductor contacts.
26 Review.
Final Exam Comprehensive.

Homework
Homework will be assigned each week on Tuesdays, and is due in the 5201 homework locker, near the ECE main office, on the following Tuesday by 4:35 p.m. Late homework will not be accepted.

Exams
There will be a midterm exam and a comprehensive final exam.

2007 Midterm exam essay question(pdf).
Midterm practice(pdf).

Grading
The course grade will be distributed as: 20% homework, 35% midterm, and 45% for the final exam.

Cheating and Collaboration
Cheating will not be tolerated, and will at least result in a failing grade for the assignment or exam and may result in a failing grade for the class with referral to the University Student Behavior Committee. However, collaboratively working with others on assignments and in study groups can greatly facilitate learning the material. Guidelines for avoiding cheating include:
  • The final written document or assignment must be the individual's own work, with proper reference given to material or ideas taken from other people or sources.
  • For homework sets solved collaboratively, each student turns in their own solutions and indicates who they collaborated with.
  • Exams must be written without communication or collaboration with others. For example, sharing a calculator in an exam will at least result in no credit for the exam.
  • Allowing someone else to cheat from ones work is also cheating.
Laboratory
The students should also register for the laboratory course ECE/MSE5211, in which basic metal gate metal gate CMOS devices will be fabricated and characterized.

College of Engineering course policy guidelines. (PDF 16 kB)