Fall 2009
PLEASE NOTE: [Click Here] - A more recent teaching of this course is available.

This is a course about how charge flows in semiconductors with an emphasis on transport in nanoscale devices. The course consists of three main parts. Part 1 focuses on near-equilibrium transport in the presence of small gradients in the electrochemical potential or temperature, with or without the application of a small magnetic field. The emphasis in Part 2 is on the physics of carrier scattering and how the microscopic scattering processes are related to macroscopic relaxation times and mean-free-paths. Part three examines high-field transport in bulk semiconductors and so-called “non-local” transport in sub-micron devices. The course concludes with a brief introduction to quantum transport. The objective of the course is to develop a broad understanding of the basic concepts needed to understand modern electronic devices. It is designed for those who work on electronic devices – whether they are experimentalists, device theorists, or computationalists. The course is intended to be accessible to students with a general, introductory background in semiconductors, such as that obtained by taking ECE-606: Solid State Physics at Purdue University.

Course Structure

Course Introduction

Part 1: Near-equilibrium transport:

Low bias transport –the Landauer approach

Low bias transport – the Boltzmann equation

Percolative transport

Part 2: Carrier scattering

Relaxation times and lengths

Carrier scattering in semiconductors

Part 3: High-field and non-local transport

Balance equations

Monte Carlo simulation

Off-equilibrium transport in bulk semiconductors and devices

Quantum transport

Instructors Course Website

Mark Lundstrom is the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He was the founding director of the Network for Computational Nanotechnology and now serves as chairman of its Executive Committee. Lundstrom earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota in 1973 and 1974, respectively and joined the Purdue faculty upon completing his doctorate on the West Lafayette campus in 1980. Before attending Purdue, he worked at Hewlett-Packard Corporation on MOS process development and manufacturing. At Purdue, he has worked on solar cells, heterostructure devices, carrier transport physics, and the physics and simulation of nanoscale transistors. His current research interests focus on the physics and technology of energy conversion devices. Lundstrom is a fellow the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has received several awards for his contributions to research and education and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

This course is part of a the "Electronics from the Bottom Up" educational initiative being spearheaded by the Network for Computational Nanotechnology with support from Intel Corp.

Fundamentals of Carrier Transport, 2nd Edition Mark Lundstrom, Cambridge University Press ISBN-13: 9780521637244 (paperback)

Advanced Semiconductor Fundamentals, 2nd Edition R.F. Pierret, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-061792-X

Handouts and class notes will also be distributed from time to time

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Mark Lundstrom (2009), "ECE 656: Electronic Transport in Semiconductors (Fall 2009)," https://nanohub.org/resources/7281.

1. Charge Transport
2. ECE 212BN related
3. nanoelectronics
4. nanotransistors