Advanced Semiconductor Fundamentals [Paperback]

Focus on silicon-based semiconductors—a real-world, market-dominating issue that will appeal to people looking to apply what they are learning. Comprehensive coverage includes treatment of basic semiconductor properties, elements of Quantum Mechanics, energy band theory, equilibrium carrier statistics, recombination-generation processes, and drift/diffusion carrier transport. Practicing engineers and scientists will find this volume helpful, whether it be self-study, reference, or review.

Advanced Semiconductor Fundamentals is viewed by the author as a doorway to the graduate or journal-level discussion of solid-state devices. It was originally prepared in part as a supplement to a widely used graduate text and in part to provide background information required in advanced-level volumes of the Modular Series on Solid State Devices. Since its introduction in 1987, the volume has subsequently become routinely employed in introductory graduate-level courses on solid-state devices. The second edition primarily revises dated sections of the volume and, with a significant increase in end-of-chapter problems, expands its usefulness as a stand-alone text.

The designation "advanced" used in the title of the volume is of course a relative term: the material in the volume is "advanced" relative to that in Modular Series Volume I and chapters one through three in Semiconductor Device Fundamentals, other works by the author. The cited works are recommended prerequisites for the present volume. The present volume extends and reinforces the concepts presented in the cited works.

Following the general philosophy of the Modular Series, the present volume is devoted to a specific topic area and is essentially self-contained. The modular nature of the series permits the volumes to be used in courses of either standard or nonstandard format, the latter including short courses, television or web-based courses, and in-house continuing education courses. Students, practicing engineers, and scientists should also find this and the other volumes useful for individual instruction, whether it be for learning, reference, or review. Coherent presentation of the material in Advanced Semiconductor Fundamentals in the standard lecture format requires at least 15 fifty-minute periods. With minor deletions, the material in this volume is regularly covered during the first six weeks of a one-semester, three-credit-hour, first-year graduate-level course in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University.

The topic coverage in the second edition is essentially identical to that in the first edition. The treatment includes basic semiconductor properties, elements of Quantum Mechanics, energy band theory, equilibrium carrier statistics, recombination-generation processes, and drift/diffusion carrier transport. Unfortunately, length limitations precluded coverage of a number of other desirable topics. Nevertheless, the coverage should be sufficient for understanding or delving deeper into the operation of the major semiconductor device structures. Of the many semiconductors, silicon (Si) totally dominates the present marketplace; the vast majority of discrete devices and integrated circuits are silicon based. Given its position of dominance, attention is focused herein on Si in the text development. Where feasible, however, GaAs and other semiconductors are featured as the discussion warrants.

It should be mentioned that throughout the volume every effort has been made to use normally encountered symbols for a given quantity. In some instances this has led to dual-meaning symbols (e.g., k for wavenumber and for the Boltzmann constant). The proper interpretation of a dual-meaning symbol is invariably obvious from context. In the author's opinion it is preferable to court ambiguity rather than introduce alternative symbols and/or cumbersome subscripts that are unlikely to be encountered in other works.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the influence of the classic text by McKelvey (J. P McKelvey, Solid State and Semiconductor Physics, Harper and Row, New York, 1966). Chapter 2 and portions of Chapter 3 parallel McKelvey's organization and/or topic presentation. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Prof. Mark Lundstrom, a Purdue University colleague, who was most helpful in supplying key information on several topics and Tom Robbins, ECE Publisher at Prentice Hall, who exhibited great patience in dealing with a difficult author.