Integrated Microelectronic Devices Physics and Modeling

A modern take on microelectronic device engineering

Microelectronics is a 50-year-old engineering discipline still undergoing rapid evolution and societal adoption. Integrated Microelectronic Devices: Physics and Modeling fills the need for a rigorous description of semiconductor device physics that is relevant to modern nanoelectronics. The central goal is to present the fundamentals of semiconductor device operation with relevance to modern integrated microelectronics. Emphasis is devoted to frequency response, layout, geometrical effects, parasitic issues and modeling in integrated microelectronics devices (transistors and diodes). In addition to this focus, the concepts learned here are highly applicable in other device contexts.

This text is suitable for a one-semester junior or senior-level course by selecting the front sections of selected chapters (e.g. 1-9). It can also be used in a two-semester senior-level or a graduate-level course by taking advantage of the more advanced sections. 

Preface xv

About the Author xix

1 Electrons, Photons, and Phonons

1.1 Selected Concepts of Quantum Mechanics

1.1.1 The dual nature of the photon

1.1.2 The dual nature of the electron

1.1.3 Electrons in confined environments

1.2 Selected Concepts of Statistical Mechanics

1.2.1 Thermal motion and thermal energy

1.2.2 Thermal equilibrium

1.2.3 Electron statistics

1.3 Selected Concepts of Solid-State Physics

1.3.1 Bonds and bands

1.3.2 Metals, insulators, and semiconductors

1.3.3 Density of states

1.3.4 Lattice vibrations: phonons

1.4 Summary

1.5 Further reading

Problems

2 Carrier Statistics in Equilibrium

2.1 Conduction and Valence Bands; Bandgap; Holes

2.2 Intrinsic Semiconductor

2.3 Extrinsic Semiconductor

2.3.1 Donors and acceptors

2.3.2 Charge neutrality

2.3.3 Equilibrium carrier concentration in a doped semiconductor

2.4 Carrier Statistics in Equilibrium

2.4.1 Conduction and valence band density of states

2.4.2 Equilibrium electron concentration

2.4.3 Equilibrium hole concentration

2.4.4 np product in equilibrium

2.4.5 Location of Fermi level

2.5 Summary

2.6 Further Reading

Problems

3 Carrier Generation and Recombination

3.1 Generation and Recombination Mechanisms

3.2 Thermal Equilibrium: Principle of Detailed Balance

3.3 Generation and Recombination Rates in Thermal Equilibrium

3.3.1 Band-to-band optical generation and recombination

3.3.2 Auger generation and recombination

3.3.3 Trap-assisted thermal generation

Jesús A. del Alamois Donner Professor and Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. He obtained a Telecommunications Engineer degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain) and MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Over the years, Prof. del Alamo has been involved in research on transistors and other electronic devices in a variety of material systems. He has worked on Si solar cells, Si bipolar junction transistors, Si metal—oxide—semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), SiGe heterostructure devices, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (PHEMTs), InGaAs high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and MOSFETs, InGaSb HEMTs and MOSFETs, GaN HEMTs and MOSFETs, and more recently diamond MOSFETs. Prof. del Alamo teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses at MIT in electronics, electron devices and circuits, and advanced semiconductor device physics. He has received multiple teaching and achievement awards at MIT: the 1992 Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the 1993 H. E. Edgerton Junior Faculty Achievement Award, the 2001 Louis D. Smullin Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the 2002 Amar Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2012, Prof. del Alamo was awarded the IEEE Electron Devices Society Education Award “for pioneering contributions to the development of online laboratories for microelectronics education on a worldwide scale”.