Courses

Course Catalog

Fundamentals of Transistors

The transistor has been called the greatest invention of the 20th century – it enabled the electronics systems that have shaped the world we live in. Today’s nanotransistors are a high volume, high impact success of the nanotechnology revolution. This is a course on how this scientifically interesting and technologically important device operates.

  1. MOSFET
  2. nanoelectronics
  3. nanoHUB-U
  4. nanotransistors
  5. NCN Group - Nanoelectronics
  6. NCN Transistor @ 75
  7. transistors

nanoHUB-U

Brought to you by:

nanoHUB-U

This course is in the process of being deployed

Course Description: The transistor has been called the greatest invention of the 20th century – it enabled the electronics systems that have shaped the world we live in. Today’s nanotransistors are a high volume, high impact success of the nanotechnology revolution. This is a course on how this scientifically interesting and technologically important device operates.

Learning Objectives:  

    • Understand the physical operations of transistors- especially nanoscale transistors. 
    • Relate the physical understanding to the IV characteristics of the device

Prerequisites: A basic understanding of semiconductors as typically taught in an undergraduate semiconductor device course is assumed. No familiarity with electronics or transistors is assumed, but those with such a background will gain an understanding of how nanoscale transistors differ from their micrometer scale cousins.

The transistor has been called the greatest invention of the 20th century – it enabled the electronics systems that have shaped the world we live in. Today’s nanotransistors are a high volume, high impact success of the nanotechnology revolution. This is a course on how this scientifically interesting and technologically important device operates.

The objective for this course is to provide students with an understanding of the essential physics of nanoscale transistors as well as some of the practical technological considerations and applications. The goal is to do this in a way that is broadly accessible to students with only a very basic knowledge of semiconductor physics and electronic circuits. The course is designed for anyone seeking a sound, physical, but simple understanding of how modern transistors, specifically MOSFETS, operate. This course covers the traditional theory of MOSFETs with micrometer to sub-micrometer channel lengths, as well as modern, nanoscale MOSFETs with channel lengths of 20 nanometers (0.02 micrometers) or so. The course should be useful for advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, as well as practicing engineers and scientists.

What you'll learn:

  • How to understand MOSFET IV characteristics and device metrics and how to analyze measured transistors characteristics to extract key device parameters.
  • The physical operating principles of barrier-controlled transistors such as MOSFETs.
  • 1D/2D/3D MOS electrostatics and an appreciation of the need for advanced MOSFET structures such as the FinFET.
  • How modern transport theory (the transmission approach) is applied to nanoscale MOSFETs.
  • A first look at other transistors and an appreciation of the role that physics-based compact models for MOSFETs play in circuit and system design.