EE2003 – SEMICONDUCTOR

FUNDAMENTALS (Part I)
TAN Chuan Seng, PhD
Associate Professor, School of EEE
Office: S2-B2c-85
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 6790 5636

Lecture notes & tutorial questions are available in

NTULearn

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 Textbook
D. A. Neamen, Semiconductor Physics
& Devices – Basic Principles, 4th Ed.,
McGraw Hill, 2011.

Other Reference Books:

 B. G. Streetman and Sanjay Banerjee, Solid State Electronic
Devices, 5th Ed., Prentice-Hall, 2000.
 R. F. Pierret, Semiconductor Devices Fundamentals, 2nd Ed.,
Addison Wesley, 1996.
 C. Hu, Modern Semiconductor Devices for Integrated
Circuits, 1st Ed, Prentice Hall, 2009.
 R. F. Pierret, Advanced Semiconductor Fundamentals, 2nd
Ed, Prentice Hall, 2002.
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 Tutorials (Extended)
• Please attempt all questions prior to tutorial class.
We will have discussion in the tutorial classes;
• Please go to your respective tutorial groups, check
the day / time / room;
• The first tutorial starts in Week #1;

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 Grading
• Continuous Assessment (CA): 40%
- Mid-term Quiz: 10%
- Class Participation: 10%
- Homework Assignment: 10%
- Practical Work (L2003A, L2003B): 10%
• Final Exam: 60%

Updated details are made available at the

beginning of every semester in the course
announcement.

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 Examination Matters
There will be 4 questions and you are required to
answer all questions in 2.5 hrs.

Date: To be announced.

Selected formulae & table of physical constant will

be given in the Appendix of the exam script.

Past year papers: EE2003 are available from the

library.

* Details are available in the course announcement.

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 Examination Topics
For Part I of the lecture, the following topics are NOT
included in the examination.
• Bonding of hydrogen molecules (section 3.1)

• Topics in the Appendices. However, you need to know

the concepts in the Appendices to understand the
course.
For examples: electronic configuration of atoms in
Appendix A, k wavevector in Appendix D, effective
masses mn* & mp* in Appendix E.

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Material Conductivity

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Silicon Wafer Size

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What is this course about?

+
I V


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How many transistor do you think
you carry with you in your
laptop/tablet/smart phone today?
(a)1K
(b)1M
(c)1B
(d)1T

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 State-of-the-
art transistor:
14 nm (intel)

H1N1 Virus: 100 nm (7x) Red Blood Cell: 7,800 nm (550x)

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Intel Penryn (and Nehalem) 45 nm Core 2 Duo
12” Processed Wafer Penryn Die Photo

NMOS PMOS
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 Dissection of Intel IC Chip

Solder Bump
- Packaging

Multi-level Interconnects
- BEOL

Intel Technology Journal, 2008

Transistors - FEOL

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When light is involved…
+
I V

Increasing light
intensity

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 Contents (Part I)
1. Introduction to Semiconductors
2. Semiconductor Crystal Structure
i. Types of solids
ii. Space lattice, primitive & unit cells
iii. Crystallographic directions & planes
iv. Basic crystal structures & semiconductor crystals
3. Energy Band of Semiconductors
i. Molecular orbitals & energies
ii. Energy band: conduction & valence bands
iii. Electrons & holes:
Direct band-to-band generation & recombination
iv. Direct & indirect bandgap semiconductors
a) E–k for free electrons & electrons in crystals
b) Ε–k for Si & GaAs
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4. Doping of Semiconductors
i. Intrinsic material
ii. Impurities in semiconductor: Donor & Acceptor
5. Semiconductor in Equilibrium
i. Fermi-Dirac Distribution Function
ii. Density of States
iii. Thermal Equilibrium Carrier Concentrations
iv. Intrinsic & Extrinsic Materials
6. Carrier Transport
i. Thermal Motion
ii. Drift Current
iii. Diffusion Current
iv. The Einstein Relation

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Appendices
A. Atoms & Atomic Bonding
B. Density of States
D. E–k Relation
E. Effective mass
F. Characterization (useful for labs)

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 Where is EE2003 taking you to?
EE1003 INTRODUCTION TO MATERIALS FOR
ELECTRONICS

EE2003 SEMICONDUCTOR FUNDAMENTALS

EE3013 SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES AND

PROCESSING
EE3018 INTRODUCTION TO PHOTONICS

FINAL YEAR SPECIALIZATION

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 Microelectronics
Design Electives
EE4613 CMOS Process and Device Simulation by Technology CAD
•Workstation Based Design & Simulation Course
•Virtual Wafer Fabrication & Device Characterization of a 2 µm CMOS
Process
•Virtual Process Integration for MOS Technology Development & Device
Optimization

EE4614 Device Parameter Extraction & Layout Implementation

• Workstation Based Design & Simulation Course
• Virtual Device Characterization
• Transistor Parameter Extraction
• Circuit Simulation & Mask Layout

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 Microelectronics
Technical Electives
EE4645 Microfabrication Engineering
EE4646 VLSI Technology
EE4647 Microelectronic Devices
EE4648 Flat Panel Display Technologies
IC Reliability and Failure
EE4694
Analysis
EE4695 Semiconductor Physics

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 Photonics
Design Electives
EE4815 Optical Design
•Design of multiplayer dielectric films and lasers, which are
the two widely used technologies of the modern optics.

EE4816 Photonic Devices: Design and Characterization

•Principle & advanced techniques related to photonic device
operation, design & characterization, & their
implementation in photonics systems.

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 Photonics
Technical Electives
EE4648 Flat Panel Display Technologies

EE4695 Semiconductor Physics

EE4836 Semiconductor Optoelectronics

EE4838 Laser Engineering and Applications

EE4839 Fibre Optic Communications

EE4840 Biophotonics

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 Electronics Sector in Singapore
 Electronics is the major industry underpinning
Singapore’s economic growth.
 contributes 31.5% of the city-state’s manufacturing
output.
 In 2009, electronics accounted for almost 41.5% of the
total S$11.8 billion in fixed asset investments.
 Employment for the industry in 2009 stands at 76,000,
which is 19% of total manufacturing jobs.

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 Microelectronics Industry in Singapore
 14 Si wafer fabrication plants.
 world’s top three wafer foundries, 500,000 wpm, 10% of
global foundry wafer capacity, three 300mm fabs.
 5 compound semiconductor fabrication plants.
 20 semiconductor assembly & test operations.
 3 of the world’s top 5 outsourced semiconductor assembly
& test companies

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 Job Opportunities

Microelectronics

A Broad Spectrum of Job Opportunities across the Value Chain!

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Breakdown of Manpower Demand

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 Research Oriented Opportunities
 Professors EEE are research active.
 ~25% of EEE graduate students are
studying Microelectronics
 Many PhD scholarships.
 Job prospect after MEng or PhD:
Professor, research scientist or
engineer at IME, IMRE, DSI, I2R,
SimTech, IBN, NTU, NUS, etc. (&
overseas opportunities).

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Check out the following YouTube clips….

From sand to chip - How a CPU is made

How do they make Silicon Wafers and

Computer Chips?

Semiconductor Technology at TSMC, 2011

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What are your expectations of this course?

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