ECE 656: Electronic Transport in Semiconductors (Fall 2011)
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Abstract
Fall 2011
This course is about how charge flows in semiconductors with an emphasis on transport in nanoscale devices. The objective is to develop a broad understanding of basic concepts. The course is designed for those who work on electronic materials and devices – whether they are experimentalists, device physicists, or computational experts. The course is intended to be accessible to students with a general, introductory background in semiconductors, such as that obtained by taking ECE 495N: Fundamentals of Nanoelectronics and ECE-606: Solid State Physics at Purdue University. An appreciation of some basic concepts in solid-state physics (e.g. energy bands, phonons, etc.) and elementary quantum mechanics is helpful.
After a quick review of some fundamentals, 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 3 examines high-field transport in bulk semiconductors and so-called “non-local” transport in nanoscale devices. Both semiclassical and quantum transport effects are discussed.
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An earlier teaching of this course is available: ECE 656: Electronic Transport in Semiconductors (Fall 2009).
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Location
ECE 115, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN