Physics of Electronic Materials and Semiconductor Devices

Catalog description

This subject provides students with the fundamentals of electronic materials including semiconductor physics and its application to common semiconductor devices and properties of metals, dielectrics, and magnetic materials. The course starts with quantum theory of the hydrogen atom and photon interactions, multi-electron atoms, Pauli exclusion principle, and the periodic table. Next, cubic crystal structures, dipoles and properties of dielectrics, and magnetic materials are introduced. The band theory of solids and theory of semiconductors is developed including energy gap, Fermi-Dirac statistics, mobility of electrons and holes, Ohm’s law, influence of temperature on conductivity, doping, photoconductivity, drift and diffusion of charge carriers, and the (Shockley) ideal diode equation. Then, properties of the abrupt p-n junction are studied and applied to various practical devices including the signal diode, breakdown diode, varactor diode, photo-diode, light-emitting diode, LASER diode, solar cell, bipolar junction transistor, thyristor, metal-semiconductor contacts, MOS capacitor, and finally field effect transistors. Heterojunction structures and IGBTs are also studied. The course has a very strong laboratory component. About half the experiments illustrate fundamental properties of electronic and semiconductor materials and half explore the characteristics and properties of a variety of semiconductor devices. Semiconductor manufacturing methods and the Li ion battery are also introduced.