Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

EECS 4600 - Solid State Devices Course Syllabus

Credits/Contact Hours
4 cr.h., 3 contact hours + laboratory, engineering topic 
Textbook
B.G. Streetman, S.K. Banerjee “Solid State Electronic Devices”, 7th edition, Pearson (2015), ISBN: 978-0-13-335603-8 
Course Information

1. Brief description of the content of the course: 

Semiconductor materials and semiconductor technology basics. Crystals and semiconductor fabrication. Electrical transport in metals and semiconductors. Theory and operation of diodes, field-effect transistors and bipolar junction transistors. Laboratory involves experimentation with the semiconductor devices covered in the lectures. 

b. Prerequisites or co-requisites 

Prerequisites: EECS 3400 Electronics 1; Corequisites: None 

c. Indicate whether a required, elective, or selected elective (as per Table 5-1) course in the program: a required course for BS EE students 

 Specific Goals - Student Learning Objectives (SLOs)

a. Specific outcomes of instruction (e.g. The student will be able to explain the significance of current research about a particular topic.)

Students will be able to understand: (1 through 9): 

1. The differences between metals, insulators, and semiconductors and origin of their properties based on the crystal structures of materials. 
2. Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors and role of doping in engineering the properties of semiconductor structures. 
3. The fabrication process of silicon wafers, starting from silica. 
4. Generation and recombination of charge carriers in semiconductors under electrical, optical and thermal excitation, and transport of these carriers under an electric field. 
5. Formation of p-n junctions, p-n junction devices, fabrication, electrical characteristics, and their wide range of applications as diodes, LEDs, and solar cells. 
6. Metal-semiconductor contacts resulting in ohmic vs. Schottky (rectifying) junctions. 
7. Field-effect transistors (FET) fundamental working principles, fabrication, and applications. 
8. Bipolar junction transistors’ (BJT) basic structure, operation, and characteristics. 
9. The Moore’s Law for the scaling of MOSFETs and its impact in revolutionizing the electronic market, including high speed processors and consumer electronic products. 
10. Students will be able to conduct an experiment, in teams of 2 or 3 people, to measure the switching speed and switching energy loss of a MOSFET, analyze the data, and draw appropriate conclusions. 
11. Students will be able to analyze the design of a solar cell in terms of materials, device geometry, and fabrication technology, as well as consider the global, economic, environmental, and societal impact of new solar cell technologies. 

b. explicitly indicate which of the student outcomes listed in Criterion 3 or any other outcomes are addressed by the course. 

Criterion 3 outcomes #1 and #4 are addressed by this course. 

Topics

1. Introduction. Crystal properties and growth of semiconductors (weeks 1-3) 
2. Atoms and electrons (weeks 3 - 4) 
3. Energy bands and charge carriers in semiconductors (weeks 5 - 7) 
4. Excess carriers in semiconductors (weeks 8 - 9) 
5. Junctions (weeks 9 - 12) 
6. Field effect transistors (week 13 - 14) 
7. Bipolar junction transistors (weeks 15) 
8. Other topics (time permitting)