Solid State Electronic Devices: Global Edition + Solution

Book Preface

This book is an introduction to semiconductor devices for undergraduate electrical engineers, other interested students, and practicing engineers and scientists whose understanding of modern electronics needs updating. The book is organized to bring students with a background in sophomore physics to a level of understanding that will allow them to read much of the current literature on new devices and applications.

Goals what is New in this Edition

An undergraduate course in electronic devices has two basic purposes: (1) to provide students with a sound understanding of existing devices, so that their studies of electronic circuits and systems will be meaningful and (2) to develop the basic tools with which they can later learn about newly developed devices and applications. Perhaps the second of these objectives is the more important in the long run; it is clear that engineers and scientists who deal with electronics will continually be called upon to learn about new devices and processes in the future. For this reason, we have tried to incorporate the basics of semiconductor materials and conduction processes in solids, which arise repeatedly in the literature when new devices are explained. Some of these concepts are often omitted in introductory courses, with the view that they are unnecessary for understanding the fundamentals of junctions and transistors. We believe this view neglects the important goal of equipping students for the task of understanding a new device by reading the current literature. Therefore, in this text most of the commonly used semiconductor terms and concepts are introduced and related to a broad range of devices.

• updated discussion of MOS devices, both in the underlying theory of ballistic FETs as well as discussion of advanced MOSFETs such as FinFETs, strained Si devices, metal gate/ high-k devices, III-V high channel mobility devices
• updated treatment of optoelectronic devices, including high bandgap nitride semiconductors and quantum cascade lasers
• brand new section on nanoelectronics to introduce students to exciting concepts such as 2D materials including graphene and topological insulators, 1D nanowires and nanotubes, and 0D quantum dots;
• discussion of spintronics, and novel resistive and phase change memories
• about 100 new problems, and current references which extend concepts in the text.

As a further aid in developing techniques for independent study, the reading list at the end of each chapter includes a few articles which students can read comfortably as they study this book. We do not expect that students will read all articles recommended in the reading lists; nevertheless, some exposure to periodicals is useful in laying the foundation for a career of constant updating and self-education. We have also added a summary of the key concepts at the end of each chapter.

Reading Lists
One of the keys to success in understanding this material is to work problems that exercise the concepts. The problems at the end of each chapter are designed to facilitate learning the material. Very few are simple “plug-in” problems. Instead, they are chosen to reinforce or extend the material presented in the chapter. In addition, we have added “self quiz” problems that test the conceptual understanding on the part of the students.