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PurdueX: Semiconductor Fundamentals

From smartphones to satellites, semiconductors are everywhere. Tying together physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering, this easy-to-follow introduction provides the background needed to understand devices such as transistors and solar cells.

6 weeks
8–9 hours per week
Instructor-paced
Instructor-led on a course schedule
This course is archived
Semiconductor Fundamentals

About this course

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This course provides the essential foundations required to understand the operation of semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes, solar cells, light-emitting devices, and more. The material will primarily appeal to electrical engineering students whose interests are in applications of semiconductor devices in circuits and systems. The treatment is physical and intuitive, and not heavily mathematical.

Technology users will gain an understanding of the semiconductor physics that is the basis for devices. Semiconductor technology developers may find it a useful starting point for diving deeper into condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and materials science. The course presents an electrical engineering perspective on semiconductors, but those in other fields may find it a useful introduction to the approach that has guided the development of semiconductor technology for the past 50+ years.

Students taking this course will be required to complete two (2) proctored exams using the edX online Proctortrack software.
Completed exams will be scanned and sent using Gradescope for grading.

Semiconductor Fundamentals is one course in a growing suite of unique, 1-credit-hour short courses being developed in an edX/Purdue University collaboration. Students may elect to pursue a verified certificate for this specific course alone or as one of the six courses needed for the edX/Purdue MicroMasters program in Nanoscience and Technology. For further information and other courses offered and planned, please see the Nanoscience and Technology page. Courses like this can also apply toward a Purdue University MSECE degree for students accepted into the full master’s program.

At a glance

  • Institution: PurdueX
  • Subject: Electronics
  • Level: Advanced
  • Prerequisites:

    Undergraduate physics, chemistry, and mathematics including basic differential equations.

  • Language: English
  • Video Transcript: English
  • Associated programs:
  • Associated skills:Grading (Landscape), Electrical Engineering, Smartphone Operation, Condensed Matter, Thermodynamics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Physics, Mechanics, Semiconductors, Semiconductor Device, Transistor

What you'll learn

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Students will learn about the following specific topics:

  • energy bands
  • band gaps
  • effective masses
  • electrons and holes
  • basics of quantum mechanics
  • the Fermi function
  • the density-of-states
  • intrinsic carrier density
  • doping and carrier concentrations
  • carrier transport
  • generation-recombination
  • quasi-Fermi levels
  • the semiconductor equations
  • energy band diagrams

Among the important learning objectives, the course will introduce learners to the process of drawing and interpreting energy band diagrams. Energy band diagrams are a powerful, conceptual way to qualitatively understand the operation of semiconductor devices. In a concise way, they encapsulate most of the device-relevant specifics of semiconductor physics. Drawing and interpreting an energy band diagram is the first step in understanding the operation of a device.

This course material is typically covered in the first few weeks of an introductory semiconductor device course, but this class provides a fresh perspective informed by new understanding of electronics at the nanoscale.

Syllabus

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Week 1: Materials Properties and Doping

  • Energy levels to energy bands
  • Crystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous semiconductors
  • Miller indices
  • Properties of common semiconductors
  • Free carriers in semiconductors

Week 2: Rudiments of Quantum Mechanics

  • The wave equation
  • Quantum confinement
  • Quantum tunneling and reflection
  • Electron waves in crystals
  • Density of states

Week 3: Equilibrium Carrier Concentration

  • The Fermi function
  • Fermi-Dirac integrals
  • Carrier concentration vs. Fermi level
  • Carrier concentration vs. doping density
  • Carrier concentration vs. temperature

Week 4: Carrier Transport, Generation, and Recombination

  • The Landauer approach
  • Current from the nanoscale to the macroscale
  • Drift-diffusion equation
  • Carrier recombination
  • Carrier generation

Week 5: The Semiconductor Equations

  • Mathematical formulation
  • Energy band diagrams
  • Quasi-Fermi levels
  • Minority carrier diffusion equation

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.

This course is part of Nanoscience and Technology MicroMasters Program

Learn more 
Expert instruction
6 graduate-level courses
Instructor-led
Assignments and exams have specific due dates
8 months
7 - 9 hours per week

Ways to take this course

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Certificate

Free

Price

$750 USD

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Access to course materials

Unlimited

Limited

World-class institutions and universities

edX support

Shareable certificate upon completion

Graded assignments and exams

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