Lecture Notes

Abbreviations

TE = thermal equilibrium
MOS = metal-on-silicon
MOSFET = metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor
BJT = bipolar junction transistor
CMOS = complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
CS = common source
OCTC = open circuit time constant

 

LEC # TOPICS SLIDES ADDITIONAL NOTES
1 Introduction to semiconductors, doping, generation/recombination, TE carrier concentrations. Carrier dynamics and transport: drift. (PDF)  
2 Excess populations and minimum carrier lifetime, photoconductivity. Non-uniform concentrations and diffusion. Fick's first and second laws. (PDF)  
3 The five basic equations. Device structures in TE: carriers and electrostatic potential; the 60 mV rule. Poisson's equation (PE). (PDF)

Solving the five equations (PDF)

Photoconductors (PDF)

4 P-n junctions in thermal equilibrium and under reverse bias, the depletion approximation (DA), comparison to PE solution. (PDF)  
5 Review reverse biased junctions. Consider forward bias and the special case of minority carrier injection into quasineutral regions. (PDF)  
6 Forward biased p-n junctions: carrier injection, i-v characteristics (ideal and real; forward and reverse). Engineering carrier injection. (PDF)  
7 Bipolar junction transistors: two coupled diodes, terminal characteristics, regions of operation (PDF)  
8 Solar cells and LEDs (light emitting diodes). (PDF)  
9 MOS capacitors: the DA applied to two-terminal MOS capacitor accumulation, depletion, and inversion; VFB, VT, QA, and QN (PDF)  
10 The three-terminal MOS capacitor. MOSFETs: begin gradual channel approximation (GCA) using DA and ignoring subthreshold carriers. (PDF) CCD Nobel Prize slides (PDF)
11 Complete GC/DA model for iDS: saturation, channel length modulation. Output characteristics; regions of operation. (PDF)

Drain current model (PDF)

Gradual channel approximation for MOSFETs (PDF)

12 Subthreshold operation of MOSFETs. Development of model; compare to full numerical solution. Compare to/contrast with BJTs. (PDF - 1.0MB) Sub-threshold modeling notes (PDF - 1.1MB)
13 Linear equivalent circuits for MOSFETs and BJTs at low and high frequency; transconductance of subthreshold MOSFETs. (PDF)  
14 Logic inverter basics. Introduction to CMOS: transfer characteristics, noise margins, optimal device sizing. (PDF)

Inverter analysis and design (PDF)

Analysis of inverter switching delays (PDF)

15 CMOS analysis, continued: switching delays, power dissipation, speed/power trade-offs. (PDF) Analysis of CMOS gate delay and power (PDF)
16 CMOS analysis, continued: subthreshold leakage, scaling rules, and where it is all going. (PDF)

CMOS scaling and power dissipation (PDF)

CMOS scaling: comparing 1970 and 2000 (PDF)

17 Linear amplifier basics: performance metrics, current source biasing, current mirrors, mid-band range, two-port representation. (PDF)  
18 Single-transistor building block stages: common-source, common-gate, and common-drain (follower) stages; characteristics and features. (PDF)  
19 Differential amplifiers: large signal transfer characteristics; small signal analysis using common- and difference-mode inputs. (PDF)  
20 Multi-stage amplifiers I: cascading diff stages; current source biasing; output stages. (PDF) Active loads: current mirror load, Lee load (PDF)
21 Multi-stage amplifiers II: active loads, biasing for maximum gain, input and output swings. (PDF) The marvelous cascode (PDF)
22 Multi-stage amplifiers III: examples, stage selection, speciality stages, looking at a commercial op-amp schematic. Begin frequency response. (PDF - 1.1MB)  
23 Frequency response of CS amplifiers, the Miller effect. Intrinsic frequency limitations of MOSFETs. Biasing to maximize speed, power trade-off. (PDF)  
24 OCTC method for estimating frequency response. Subthreshold amplifiers for ultra-lower power electronics, frequency performance. (PDF - 1.1MB)  
25 MOS imagers. Semester wrap-up; life after 6.012. (PDF)