ECEN 370-502 Detailed Course Objectives
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Review: Refreshment and warming-up of “forgotten” fundamentals.
Introduce: Quick and brief overview of the topics (application examples).
Discuss: In-depth and detail qualitative coverage of the important concepts.
Derive: Quantitative analysis of the interrelationship of different concepts (equation and calculation).
CHAPTER 1
1. Review resistance/resistivity/conductivity, current/current density, voltage/electrical field and derivation from
one to another.
2. Review fundamental unit conversion.
3. Review conductivity/resistively based on the resistance and geometric parameters of a piece of conductor.
4. Derive the interrelationship of mobility, effective mass, mean free time and average drift velocity.
5. Discuss mobility and mean free time change with temperature.
6. Derive ohm's law in its microscopic form.
7. Derive conductivity as a function of carrier mobility and concentration.
8. Discuss fundamental principle of Hall effect (deflection of moving charges in a magnetic field).
9. Derive Hall voltage from magnetic field, bias current and Hall coefficient.
10. Derive the interrelationship of conductivity, mobility, carrier concentration and Hall coefficient.
11. Introduce experimental methods to determine the conductivity, Hall coefficient and mobility of a
semiconductor from I-V and Hall measurements.
12. Introduce the application of Hall effect in sensing applications.
CHAPTER 2
1. Derive electron acceleration or deceleration in an electrical field and the change of its kinetic energy and
electrical potential energy.
2. Derive the velocity of charged particles (e.g. electron and proton) from the bias voltage.
3. Derive the wavelength of the charged particles after acceleration.
4. Introduce the working principle of scanning electron microscope (SEM).
5. Discuss the theoretical limit on SEM resolution and methods to improve.
CHAPTER 3
1. Discuss the potential energy distribution of the M-V, V-M, V-M-V, M-V-M, and S1-S2-S1 interfaces.
2. Derive the wave number (k) and the reflection/transmission coefficients for both electron and electron currents.
This includes M-V and V-M interfaces, and two cases of either E>V2 or E<V2.
3. Discuss the concept of the potential (quantum) well, where all the electron energy is discrete when it is lower
than V2, and how the width of the well affects the difference of two discrete energy levels.
4. Derive the discrete energy levels of the potential well with rigid walls.
5. Introduce the fundamental principle of quantum-well lasers, quantum dots and derive the wavelength of its
radiation.
6. Discuss the fundamental concept of electron tunneling (for electrons with E<V2) and how it is affected by the
temperature, the width and height of barrier.
7. Derive the tunneling coefficient/current.
8. Discuss the fundamental principle of scanning tunneling microscope (STM and how it can be used to measure
the atomic surface features.
9. Introduce the implication of electron tunneling to the modern IC industry.
------------------------------------------------------------Exam 1-------------------------------------------------------------CHAPTER 6
1. Derive the physical meaning of Z(E), F(E), and Z(E)F(E) and how to use them to calculate the total and average
energy of electrons and the number of electrons within certain range of energy levels.
2. Discuss how F(E) is affected by temperature, especially at T=0K.
3. Discuss the physical implication of EF (highest electron energy at T=0K and the energy of most electrons is
around EF).
4. Derive the relationship between (EF) and total electron density.
5. Discuss the concept of work function (φ).
6. Derive the interrelationship of EF, φ and the height of the potential barrier (V2) at M-V interface.
7. Discuss the fundamental principle of thermionic emission and its relationship with temperature and work
function of the metal material.
8. Derive thermionic emission current based on temperature and emission coefficient.
9. Discuss Schottky effect and how the actual potential barrier at M-V interface is formed.
11. Discuss how an external electrical field can change the potential barrier at M-V interface.
12. Discuss the fundamental principle of field emission.
13. Discuss the effective width and barrier of reduced potential barrier at M-V interface after an external electrical
field is applied.
14. Introduce the application of electron emission mechanisms in CRT, SEM, lighting rod, and field emission
display.
15. Discuss the photon-induced electron emission and the emission criteria (photon energy greater than φ)
CHAPTER 7
1. Discuss the energy band structure of electrons (allowable bands and forbidden bands).
2. Discuss the electrical conduction of electrons in an energy band (no current conduction from the electrons in a
completely full or empty band).
3. Discuss the concept of conduction band (CB) and valence band (VB).
4. Discuss conductor/semiconductor/insulator based on CB, VB, band gap and the relative location of Fermi level
at T=0K and T>0K.
5. Discuss the concept of holes (imaginary positively charged particle with a positive effective mass to represent a
“missing” electron in VB).
6. Derive the location and the energy of the minimum of CB and maximum of VB as well as the band gap.
7. Derive effective mass for both electrons and holes based on the E-k curves.
CHAPTER 8
1. Discuss the concept of intrinsic semiconductors.
2. Derive the relationship of electron and hole concentration of intrinsic semiconductors (Ne=Nh=Ni).
3. Discuss the band structure of an intrinsic semiconductor (EFi is close to center of the band gap).
4. Derive the intrinsic electron/hole concentration at a given temperature (use Nc and Nv based on effective mass).
5. Discuss the concept of extrinsic semiconductor.
6. Discuss the concept of (electron) donor (Group V) and acceptor (Group III) and common electron donors (P,
As) and acceptors (B, Al, In).
7. Discuss the concept of extrinsic semiconductor (p or n based on the NA-ND) and the majority and minority
carriers in p or n semiconductors.
8. Derive electron/hole concentration and EF-EFi based on the doping concentration (NA, ND) and the band
structure of an extrinsic semiconductor (EF is close to Ec for n type and to Ev for p type).
9. Derive the conductivity of semiconductors.
------------------------------------------------------------Exam 2-------------------------------------------------------------CHAPTER 9
1. Discuss the concept of a p-n junction.
2. Discuss the diffusion and drift currents for a p-n junction at its equilibrium (Idiff = -Idrift).
3. Discuss the transition region, charge distribution and specify the built-in field and built-in potential.
4. Discuss the energy band diagram of a p-n junction at its equilibrium.
5. Derive the built-in field, built-in potential, transition region width based on the doping concentration of p and n
region.
6. Discuss rectification and energy band diagram of p-n junction under the forward and reverse bias.
--------------------------------------------------------------Final--------------------------------------------------------------
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The two in-class exams are open to 1 page of double-side notes.
The final exam is comprehensive and open to 3 pages of single-side notes.