Semiconductor Physics and Devices

This lecture course focuses on some of the most important materials and devices used in electrical engineering: semiconductors and semiconductor devices. Semiconductor devices play a pivotal role in electrical engineering: from light-emitting diodes to solar cells, from transistors to computer chips. This lecture course introduces quantum mechanics and solid-state physics in order to understand the material properties of semiconductors and hence to delve into the physics of the operation of semiconductor devices.

Elements of quantum mechanics will be presented to explain the wave properties of electrons and the discrete nature of energy levels. This understanding will then be used to develop the solid-state-physics for semiconductors, in particular the band structure of common semiconductors, the density of states, and the concepts underlying the transport of charge carriers in these materials. Attention will be paid also to the manipulation of semiconductor properties by extrinsic doping.

Using the essential knowledge on solid-state physics for semiconductors, attention will be focused on semiconductor devices. First the movement of charge carriers in doped semiconductors under the influence of generation, recombination, drift, and diffusion will be discussed. This knowledge will be applied to p-n junctions, which will provide the basis for a discussion on solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), as well as a brief discussion on the bipolar junction transistor (BJT). In addition, the combination of semiconductors with insulators and metals will be discussed, leading to the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) that forms the basis of the microelectronics industry today.