[Slide 1] Hello, my name is Mark Lundstrom,
and I'll be teaching this course
on semiconductor fundamentals.
As the title indicates, this course is a primer.
It's a short introduction to this important topic.
Before we dive into the course,
I'd just like to say a few words
about how the course is organized,
and give you some tips for how
to be successful in the course.
[Slide 2] So as we all know,
electronics has transformed the modern world.
These smartphones that we carry around
have billions of transistors.
The cell phone towers we drive by
are chock-full of electronics.
The solar farms that we see alongside the highways
are semiconductor devices
that convert sunlight to electricity.
Above the Earth, satellites relay
communications all across the globe.
And other semiconductor devices emit light,
are used for solid-state lighting
or to produce devices like semiconductor lasers.
So semiconductor devices are everywhere.
They've really transformed the 20th century.
They'll have even more impact in the 21st century.
And this is a course that will prepare you
to understand these devices.
[Slide 3] But I want to remind you it is not
a course about the devices, per se.
It is a course about the fundamentals of semiconductors,
about the fundamentals of the materials
that these devices are made from.
So it's the background and the knowledge you need
to dive into a course on semiconductor devices.
We'll be talking in this course
a little bit about chemistry, some material science,
some solid-state physics,
a significant amount of electrical engineering,
the fundamental concepts you need
to understand semiconductor devices.
[Slide 4] So the approach that I'll be using in this course
is to emphasis sound, physical, intuitive understanding
of a set of important key concepts.
Another goal that I have here
is to help you develop an ability
to perform some key numerical calculations,
the kinds of calculations
that we do routinely in semiconductor work.
By the end of the course,
you will be prepared to dive into a course
on almost any type of semiconductor device
and be prepared to understand
how that device operates and works.
[Slide 5] Just as an example of the approach
that I'll take in this course,
this is the Fermi function.
It's an important function in semiconductor physics.
We will not derive this function.
We will talk, we will describe it.
We will explain its physical significance.
We will explain how to use it.
We'll get some practice in using it
in numerical calculations.
But in general,
long mathematical derivations will be avoided.
[Slide 6] For those of you who would like to dive deeper
into some of the topics that we will touch upon,
I can recommend this excellent reference
by my colleague, Bob Pierret.
And there's a wealth of material
that you can find on the web
that will alow you to dive deeper
into any of the topics that we touch upon.
[Slide 7] The course is divided into five units.
You can see the title of the five units here.
And let me just explain to you
what each unit, how each unit is put together
by looking at Unit 1 as an example.
[Slide 8] So each unit consists of a set of lectures,
typically five or six,
ending with a recap that summarizes
the important concepts that you should
take away from this particular unit.
There are homework problems and an exam
associated with each of the five units as well.
[Slide 9] So if we look in a little detail at each of the lectures,
there are 24 total lectures in this course.
They tend to be short, on the order of 20 minutes or so.
Each lecture is,
along with each lecture there is a short quiz,
so that you can be sure that you got
the main points of the lecture.
There is a short problem, a numerical problem
that you should be able to work out
if you understand the concepts in that particular lecture.
I won't be providing solutions to these short problems,
because I'd like you to discuss these problems
with your classmates.
So feel free to get on the discussion forum,
to talk about these problems, share your answers
and techniques you used to solve them.
And I hope that will encourage some interaction
between all of you who are taking this course.
[Slide 10] Now after all of the lectures
there are also a set of homework problems
with each of the five units,
typically 10 or 12 homework problems.
They are more challenging than the short problem.
They won't be graded,
but homework solutions will be provided.
At the end of each unit, there will be an online test,
a short, online test based on these homework problems.
So if you're comfortable with the homework problems
and understand how they're solved,
you should be prepared for this online test.
So as I said, the homework is assigned but not graded.
The short, 2-question test to end each unit
are based on the homework.
Numerical answers are required for these tests,
so you should bring a calculator
when you're taking the test.
The exams are closed-book.
A formula sheet will be provided,
so you don't have to memorize long, complicated formulas.
And you must take all five of these exams
if you're taking the course for a certificate or for credit.
[Slide 11]Now let me explain in a little more detail
how the grading will work.
The short lecture quiz that follows each lecture
is a good way to test your understanding.
The lecture quizzes are timed.
You'll have 30 minutes to answer
five multiple choice questions.
That should be more than enough
if you've understood the material in the lecture.
There are 24 lectures.
There are five questions in each quiz.
So there are 120 lecture quiz points that are possible.
If you average 70% on that entire set
of lecture quizzes, you will receive the entire set,
the entire 120 points for that part of the course.
Each unit is also followed
by this short online unit test
based on the homework problems.
These tests are timed.
You should be able to do these tests
in less than 30 minutes.
You'll have 60 minutes to do that.
It'll be two choices,
two questions, 20 points each.
It will require you to work out a numerical answer
and then to select the proper answer
from a multiple choice set of answers.
So there will be five of these unit tests.
A maximum of 40 points is possible on each one.
Your lowest score on the first four unit exams
will be dropped.
The unit five exam may not be dropped,
so there will be a maximum of 160 points that are possible
for this set of unit exams.
[Slide 12] So for those of you who are pursuing a certificate online,
your grades will be based on a combination
of the lecture quizzes and the unit tests.
There'll be a maximum of 280 points possible,
and if you receive at least 70% of these points,
you'll earn a certificate in this course.
[Slide 13] Now some of you students are Purdue students
here registered on campus, at the Purdue campus,
or taking it online through a Purdue degree program.
If you're taking the course for Purdue credit,
your grades will be a combination
of the online tests that I've just summarized
and an additional set of proctored unit tests.
So these tests will be similar to the online versions.
They will also have 160 total points available
for the five proctored unit tests.
So the students taking this course for Purdue credit
will have a maximum of 440 points possible.
Same policies apply to Purdue students.
They will take the lecture quizzes
and the lecture unit tests
in the same way that the online students do.
All of the five proctored exams must be taken.
The lowest of the first four can be dropped,
will be dropped when computing your score,
but the unit five proctored exam may not be dropped.
[Slide 14] Okay, that's how the course will work.
Just to summarize, this course will give you
the background that you need to understand
the operation of semiconductor devices.
We won't be discussing any specific devices,
but we'll be discussing the background
that you need to understand devices.
It also provides a starting point,
a place where you can dive in and go deeper
on any of the particular topics that we discuss
and find other textbooks or resources on the web
to do that as your interests and the need arises.
Basically, this course is a summary
of the way that electrical engineers
have learned how to think about semiconductor devices
since the invention of the transistor in 1950.
So there's been a set of concepts
that've been honed and refined and developed
and that have proven to be very effective
in working with semiconductor devices.
What's different about this course
is that it is also informed
by recent advances in nanoscience.
So we will be bringing into this course
some of what we've learned in the last 20 year or so
of research on understanding current flow at the nano scale.
And modern devices very often have critical regions
that are measured in a small number of nanometers.
So we will move fast.
We'll cover a lot of ground.
You should dive right in, ask a lot of questions.
Do the work and learn the material.
And if you do so, you'll have a lot of fun.
You'll learn a lot about semiconductors.
So I'm happy that you're joining me in this course,
and I look forward to working with you
in the next five weeks.