PH 3600 - Physics of Semiconductor Materials and Devices

• Characterize the four cubic crystal types, relate lattice constant to atomic density and use Miller indices to identify crystal planes
• Differentiate electron energy bands in metals, semiconductors and insulators
• Calculate intrinsic carrier density in a semiconductor from the energy band gap and temperature
• Relate majority and minority carrier concentrations to the doping density and Fermi level
• Calculate electrical conductivity from charge carrier densities and mobilities and relate drift current to electric field and voltage
• Determine majority carrier type, concentration and drift velocity from the Hall voltage, magnetic field and current
• Predict resistance of a semiconductor from the incident light power, wavelength, band gap, recombination time and dimensions
• For a p-n junction, calculate contact potential, capacitance and current in forward or reverse bias from the doping levels, band gap, dimensions, and applied voltage
• Describe the basic operation of photodetectors, solar cells, LEDs and LASER diodes and determine the open circuit voltage, short circuit current and efficiency of a solar cell or photodiode from the doping levels, device dimensions and optical generation rate
• Predict the common emitter current gain of a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) from the doping levels and device dimensions, identify regions of minority carrier diffusion and explain the Early effect
• Determine the threshold voltage, channel conductance and saturation current of a MOSFET from the doping levels and device dimensions and explain how the gate and drain voltages influence the channel current

• Electric and magnetic fields
• Electric potential
• The Bohr atom
• Basic quantum theory

• Crystal structure (2 classes)
• Energy band theory (1 class)
• Charge carrier concentrations: Fermi statistics (3 classes)
• Charge carrier drift and diffusion (3 classes)
• Hall effect (1 class)
• Thermistors and photoconductivity (2 classes)
• P-n junction (5 classes)
• Photonic p-n junction devices (3 classes)
• Bipolar junction transistor (3 classes)
• MOSFET (3 classes)
• Device fabrication: photolithography and plasma processing (1 class)

• Hall effect
• Majority carrier type and concentration using hot and four-point probes
• Extrinsic to intrinsic conductivity transition with temperature
• Band gap determination by photonic absorption: direct and indirect
• Carrier lifetime in a CdS photocell
• P-n junction reverse bias capacitance
• BJT current gain and Early effect
• MOSFET: linear and saturation characteristics
• LED as photodetector and I-V characteristics of various two terminal devices: rectifiers, breakdown diodes, LEDs and solar cell