Week 2: Studying Semiconductors

Hello people,

This past week I have been working on learning the fundamental concepts of semiconductors. There’s a long way to go, but these ideas are essential for understanding the characteristics of the model I plan to make in future weeks down the road. As for right now however, I’ve been reading an old textbook about Semiconductors called “Physics of Semiconductor Devices” – 2nd Edition (Yes, the title is on the nose). Learning and taking notes on the properties of semiconductors has been so far an engaging and interesting experience.

The main research objective of this week, being chapter 1, focuses on the properties of semiconductors such as crystal structure, energy bands, carrier concentration, and basic equations for semiconductor device operation. While I understood most of these concepts, there are of course areas that require more research for me to be able to visualize and remember them properly such as effective mass and the recombination process.

While these concepts are likely unfamiliar to you, in actuality most of these ideas will not be brought up in future blogs or even the senior project presentation as they are necessary for me to know but will not be relevant in SPICE simulations.

References: “Physics of Semiconductor Devices” – 2nd Edition, S.M. Sze