PHYSICS OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2021/2022
- Teacher
- ANGELO COTTA RAMUSINO
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- FIS/01
Training objectives
- The course, which provides 6 CFU (48 hours), aims to present the physical principles of operation of semiconductor devices mostly used in data acquisition and processing systems and to show some characteristic examples of applications in the field of Physics.
The course aims to convey knowledge:
- of the laws regulating the transport of electric charge in semiconductors according to a "semiclassical" model, recalling first the notions of quantum mechanics that justify it.
- the processes used for the fabrication, in planar technology, of silicon electronic devices.
- of the electrical characteristics of the devices most used for signal processing: BJT and MOSFET.
The student will develop the ability to apply the knowledge acquired through analysis and synthesis exercises, supported by CAD tools, of analog and digital electronic circuits. Prerequisites
- Knowledge of the fundamental laws of classical mechanics and electromagnetism
Course programme
- The course program includes:
- 3 hours: recall of basic notions of crystallography and planar technology for manufacturing silicon-based integrated circuits (Si)
- 4 hours: recall of the notions of quantum mechanics underlying the understanding of the energy structure and the density of states for charge carriers in Si
- 2 hours: Fermi function and concentration of charge carriers at thermal equilibrium
- 2 hours: generation and recombination of charge carriers and charge transport phenomena
- 7 hours: theory of the p-n junction in equilibrium, inverse and direct polarization; Schottky junctions; comparison between the ideal junction I-V characteristic and a real diode characteristic; junction breakdown; charge control model of a diode; diode switching transients
- 2 hours: application of rectifying diodes, Varicap and Zener diodes
- 1 hour: SiPM (Silicon Photo Multiplier) devices for single photoelectron detection
- 3 hours: theory and application of bipolar junction transistors (BJT); Ebers-Moll model; equivalent small-signal model of BJT
- 1 hour: Bode plot of the frequency response of single-stage BJT amplifiers
- 2 hours: design of a simple operational amplifier built with BJT transistors
- 3 hours: theory and application of field effect transistors (MOSFET); model of Sichman-Hodges; equivalent small-signal model of MOSFET
- 1 hour: Bode plot of the frequency response of single-stage MOSFET amplifiers
- 1 hour: design of a simple operational amplifier built with MOSFET devices
- 2 hours: CMOS inverter; CMOS drivers for capacitive loads; power-delay product
- 2 hours: combinational and sequential CMOS logic circuits
- 4 hours: elements of circuit analysis in the time and frequency domain and of fundamental electronic noise theory
- 3 hours: analogue laboratory: use of a circuit simulator for the study of the circuits seen in class
- 4 hours: digital laboratory: automatic synthesis of digital circuits described in Hardware Description Language (HDL) and tutorial based on development environment for FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) integrated circuits Didactic methods
- The topics in the program are presented with lectures, during some of which the teacher uses CAD tools for the description and subsequent simulation of analog and digital circuits.
During the laboratory sessions the students use the CAD tools mentioned above independently, assisted by the teacher. Learning assessment procedures
- The student is assessed with an oral test that includes:
- discussion of a topic chosen by the student or discussion of a report prepared by the student on an exercise of circuit design/analysis similar to those seen during the course
- the answer to questions regarding the theory of operation of the devices covered by the course
- a test by which the student's ability to apply theoretical knowledge is ascertained; the test consists in the analysis of the operating status of an electrical circuit in which one or more devices among those covered by the course are used
The final grade results from the weighted average of the evaluations of the individual results. Reference texts
- S.M.Sze
Semiconductor Devices
John Wiley & Sons, 1985 - ISBN: 0-471-33372-7
Donald A. Neamen
Semiconductor Physics and Devices: basic principles - 3rd ed.
MacGraw-Hill, 2003, INTERNATIONAL EDITION ISBN 0-07-1 19862-8
Jasprit Singh
Electronic and Optoelectronic Properties of Semiconductor Structures
Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN-13 978-0-521-82379-1, ISBN-10 0-521-82379-X
J.Millman,
Microelectronics: Digital and Analog Circuits and Systems
McGraw-Hill,1972, ISBN: 007042327X
M.R.Haskard, I.C.May
Analog VLSI design nMOS and CMOS
Prentice Hall, 1988, ISBN: 0724800271
R. Gregorian
Introduction to CMOS op-amp and comparators
John Wiley & Sons, inc.,1999, ISBN: 0471317780
R. Jacob Baker
CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation (IEEE Press Series on Microelectronic Systems)
IEEE Computer Society Press; 2010, ISBN-10: 0470881321, ISBN-13: 978-0470881323
E.Gatti, P.F.Manfredi
Processing the signals from solid-state detectors in elementary-particle physics
La rivista del NUOVO CIMENTO Vol.9 N.1, 1986
