New Course Offering
Practical Semiconductor Device Simulation Using
MEDICI(EE690 Registration Code = 5846)
When:
Wed. and Fri. 1:30-3:00, Spring Quarter 1998Where: 306 Broun Hall
Instructor: Guofu Niu (326 Broun Hall, 844-1856, guofu@eng.auburn.edu)
Text: R. Dutton and Z. Yu, Technology CAD - Computer Simulation of IC Processes and Devices, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1993
Prerequisite: EE570 Physical Electronics I
Corequisite: EE571 Physical Electronics II or COI
Requirements: Several homework sets, and design projects. Extensive use of Sun workstation will be required.
Course Description
The semiconductor industry and their products are growing rapidly - memory chip capacities increase approximately by a factor of four every three years and processor speeds double nearly every two years - circuit designs get smaller and more complex with every new process technology. Shrinking device dimensions approaching atomic dimensions and new device designs utilizing band-gap engineering give rise to many new and previously unknown effects in the electrical, mechanical and thermal behavior of those devices. It is a time-consuming and expensive task to investigate those effects through real fabrication experiments, and therefore simulation has become increasingly popular. The critical internal device quantities, such as the current flow, electrical field, carrier density, and temperature distribution are not measurable and can only be accessed through device simulation.
This course presents an in-depth examination of both the theoretical and practical aspects of device simulation. The general purpose 2D device simulator, MEDICI, will be used to illustrate various critical issues, from grid generation, physical model selection and coefficients tuning, the static, transient, and frequency domain simulation of various bipolar and FET devices, to the extraction of a physical understanding of device operation. Sample device simulations that illustrate common problems and their solutions will be provided so that students can quickly start their own device related research topic. Students will have the chance to get a solid working knowledge of device simulation in order to produce faster, more accurate, and more useful simulations. This is a hands-on course!
Course Outline: