Fundamentals of Solid-State Electronics

The following sections are included:

• Preface

• CONTENTS

P100.1 Describe the two main physical causes that make classical Newtonian and classical statistical mechanics inadequate to describe the motion of electrons and atoms in a solid. What hypotheses, laws, principles, models, or methodologies are introduced in quantum mechanics and quantum statistical mechanics to overcome these limitations?

P202.1 Describe the partial equilibrium conditions of a piece of Si sitting on top of a desk in a room at a space-time constant temperature of 300K.

P310.1 Derive 3-d drift current density as a function of drift velocity.

P400.1 Why is i=C(dV/dt) inconsistent with i=dQ/dt if Q=CV is used? Is C=dQ/dV consistent with i=C(dV/dt) and i=dQ/dt? Explain concisely, succinctly.

P512.4 First generation (1960) ultrahigh speed switching Si diodes and transistors such as the 1N914 and 2N706 used in the first supercomputer, the Control Data Corporation model 6600 attained their speed by doping with the gold recombination center to a concentration of 10¹⁶cm⁻³ because gold has two very efficient recombination levels (see Fig.381.2) and gold can be diffused into Si quickly at low diffusion temperatures due to its high diffusivity in Si (see Fig.512.2). Suppose that this high-temperature gold diffusivity in Si can be extrapolated to room temperature (300K) using the Arrhenius relationship. (a) What is the gold diffusivity in Si at 300K and (b) what is the time to failure (TTF) because the substitutional gold atoms jump (a diffusion step) to adjacent interstitial sites 5A away and assume that the interstitial gold is not an electronic trap or a recombination center?

Note: Many new problems were added during fall-1993 when Sah taught the course again which did not appear in chapter 6’s problem section 699 of the 1991 edition of FSSE. These were assigned to the students and solutions were given out which are collected herein.

P710.1 Determine from the literature the basic reasoning underlying the first analysis of minority carrier injection and diffusion made by Shockley in 1946. How was this different from earlier work by British and German research scientists and book authors?

The following sections are included:

• SUMMARY

• INTRODUCTION

• INTERFACE TRAPS – Introduction
  • Surface States on Clean Silicon Surfaces
  • Interface Traps on Oxidized Silicon
  • Interface Trap Creation-Destruction by Hydrogen
  • Interface Trap Generation by VUV Light
  • Impurity Interface Trap
  • Interface Trap Generation by Hot Electrons and Holes
  • Interface Trap Creation-Destruction at High Current Density

• OXIDE TRAPS – Introduction
  • Atomic Configurations and Electronic Trapping at Oxide Traps
  • Creation and Destruction of Oxide Traps
  • Charging and Discharging Oxide Traps

• ACCEPTOR HYDROGENATION – Introduction
  • Atomic Configuration of Hydrogenated Acceptors
  • Acceptor Hydrogenation Kinetics

• ELECTROMIGRATION – Introduction
  • Empirical Characterization of Electromigration
  • Circuit Performance Limited by Interconnect Delay

• BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

• PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
  • Transistor Reliability Problems and Solutions