Solid-state Semiconductor Physics

Course Outine
Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema
University of Nairobi

March 2012

Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema (UoN)

Course Outline

03/12

1/6

Gas discharge and devices

Ionisation and breakdown in gases

Paschens law
Gas discharge lamps - neon tubes
The thyratron
The mercury arc rectier
This course however focusses on semiconductor device physics and
topics on gas discharge and devices will traditionally not be taught

Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema (UoN)

Course Outline

03/12

2/6

Solid-state semiconductors

Band theory of semiconductors

Charge transport in solid-state semiconductor
Electrons and holes
Intrinsic semiconductors
Extrinsinc semiconductors

Charge carrier concentration and the Fermi-level

Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema (UoN)

Course Outline

03/12

3/6

Solid-state semiconductors

Carrier diusion down concentration gradients

Carrier drift under applied electric and magnetic elds
Mobility and conductivity of semiconductors
Hall eect

Some additional important physical phenomena in semiconductors

Photoconduction and the photovoltaic eect
Piezoelectric eect
Seebeck, Peltier and Thomson eects

Thermistor

Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema (UoN)

Course Outline

03/12

4/6

The pn-junction

The pn-Junction
The open-circuited pn-junction
pn-junction I-V characteristics and their temperature dependence
Diode resistance
Space-charge and diusion capacitance

pn-junction diodes
Rectier diode
Zener diode
Tunnel diode
Photodiode
Light emitting diode (LED)

Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema (UoN)

Course Outline

03/12

5/6

Diode circuits

The pn-junction diode as a circuit element

The small-signal diode model
The charge control diode model
The SPICE model
Piece-wise linear diode model

The loadline
Clipping, comparator
Sampling gate, rectiers
Capacitor lters

Dr.-Ing. Wilfred Mwema (UoN)

Course Outline

03/12

6/6