Course Catalogue

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This course is an introduction to semiconductor physics for undergraduate students majoring in microelectronic science and technology. The course focuses on the fundamental physics of semiconductor devices central to their operation, including: bonding, crystals and crystal band structures, transport, metal-semiconductor junctions, semiconductor surfaces and metal-insulator-semiconductor structures.

Course will be delivered continuously in the traditional manner at UESTC.

Mandatory Entry Requirements

None

Recommended Entry Requirements

None

None

None

25% Laboratory coursework report

10% closed-book mid-term exam

65% closed-book final exam

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below.

Due to the nature of the coursework and sequencing of courses, it is not possible to reassess the homework/tutorial exercises and report. The initial grades on these coursework items will be used when calculating the resit grade.

The aim of this course is to provide students a grounding in the fundamental physics of semiconductor devices, key to the principles of their operation, and to offer graduates majoring in electronic science and technology the professional understanding needed for further study and future work.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ identify different bonding and crystal structures typical of semiconductor materials and apply the acquired knowledge to design semiconductor devices;

■ qualitatively describe and quantitatively analyse carrier transport in semiconductor materials and apply this knowledge to evaluate the performance of semiconductor devices;

■ explain the models used to describe metal-semiconductor junctions, and apply such models to design structures that meet specific performance requirements;

■ apply models describing semiconductor surfaces and metal-insulator-semiconductor structures theory to evaluate the performance of semiconductor devices;

■ be proficient in the essential knowledge framework of this course and apply the relevant knowledge to comprehensively address key issues in semiconductor device design.

Students must attend the degree examination and submit at least 75% by weight of the other components of the course's summative assessment.

Students should attend at least 75% of the timetabled classes of the course.

Students must attend the timetabled laboratory classes.

Note that these are minimum requirements: good students will achieve far higher participation/submission rates. Any student who misses an assessment or a significant number of classes because of illness or other good cause should report this by completing a MyCampus absence report.