University of Utah

Semiconductors in
Materials Engineering

MSE 6001
Fall 2007
UU College of Engineering

Semiconductor-based devices make our modern information technology society possible, and are playing a fast-increasing role in energy and lighting. This six lecture series provides a brief introduction to the principle materials properties that make semiconductors useful for electrical and optical devices. This introduction includes some modern devices, nanometer scale field effect transistors (MOSFETS), and diode lasers for communication networks.

Instructor
Mark Miller (mark.miller@utah.edu)
Office: 314 EMRO. Phone: 587-7718
Office hours: WH 1:30 – 2:30



Texts
The several supplementary texts given below cover a number of areas in semiconductor materials, physics, and devices. These texts may be of interest for students who want to look more deeply into a given area.
  • Semiconductor Devices – Physics and Technology, 2nd ed., by S. M. Sze, Wiley (2002).
    This text, used for the Semiconductor Device Physics course, ECE/MSE5201 and 5211, covers the device physics basics well, applies them to a variety of the most important devices, and gives a good overview of semiconductor fabrication technologies.
  • Fundamentals of Modern VLSI Devices, by Yuan Taur and Tak H. Ning, Cambridge (1998).
    This text, used for the Semiconductor Device Engineering course, ECE/MSE5202 and 5212, looks more closely at issues important for emerging devices, MOSFETs and bipolar transistors, use in integrated circuits.
  • Physical Properties of Semiconductors, by C. M. Wolfe, N. Holonyak, Jr., and G. E. Stillman, Printice Hall (1989).
    This quantum-mechanics based text covers the optical, electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of semiconductors.
  • Fundamentals of Semiconductors — Physics and Materials Properties, by P. Y. Yu and M. Cardona, Springer (2001).
    This QM based text has good general coverage, and is especially good for the optical properties of semiconductors.
  • Semiconductor Transport, by D. K. Ferry (2000).
    This QM based text emphasizes electronic transport and electrical properties.
  • Electronic Transport in Mesoscopic Systems by Supriyo Datta and edited by Haroon Ahmad, Michael Pepper, and Alec Broers
    This text covers the fundamentals of electronic transport through semiconductor nanostructures and molecular electronics.
  • Transport in Nanostructures by David K. Ferry and Stephen Marshall Goodnick, edited by Haroon Ahmad, Michael Pepper, and Alec Broers
    This advanced text emphasizes electronic transport formalism and phenomena in semiconductor nanostructures.

Lectures MWF, 2:00 - 2:50, EMRL 241

lecture
and links 		topics and activities
1. Introduction and overview. Materials, properties, devices.
2. Heterostructures and bandgap engineering.
3. Heterostructures. Semiconductor nanostructures.
4. Semiconductor crystal growth. Epitaxy. Organic semiconductors.
5. Scaled MOSFETS for integrated circuits.
6. Optoelectronic devices: Diode lasers.

Homework
Exam
The semiconductor final exam problem (pdf, 26 kB), asks for the design of a semiconductor heterostructure that has a particular internal quasi-electric field.
A paper that may be useful, discussed in Lecture 3, is Empirical fit to band discontiuities and barrier heights in III-V alloy systems (pdf, 404 kB).