Professor in charge

Bhaskaran Muralidharan

Course offered in

( 2016, Autumn Semester)

Motivation for this course

This course introduces us to the field of Microelectronics.The course gives insight to various streams within Microelectronics. We learn about the devices at nano, micro level, the trade-offs involved in scaling or using different materials, structures. We also read and learn about the recent research and advancements in different fields.

This course is compulsory for 2nd year Dual Degree Microelectronics students .This course is very different from the other courses because this course is taken by different professors over the whole course. The topics taught by different professors was for us to have a background of the various fields within micro-electronics itself .So each professor simply gave students a brief introduction into their field of interest .

Prerequisites

  • IIT-JEE Physics‒ Semiconductors; Semiconductor diode: I-V characteristics in forward and reverse bias; Diode; I-V characteristics of LED, Photodiode,solar cell and Zener diode; Zener diode as a voltage regulator. Junction transistor and its characteristics , application, Logic gates
  • Modern Physics (PH105)
  • Linear Algebra (MA106)

Course Content

  • Prof. Bhaskaran Muralidharan – Semiconductor basics, Scattering basics, Basics of the Ballistic Nanotransistor, Density of states,Basics of Energy Conversion,Low dimensional devices- Nanowires, tubes, dots, Graphene etc. , Memristors, Spin Physics and Spintronics,Quantum Information and Computing
  • Prof. Swaroop Ganguly – Device basics, Schrodinger equation , Quantum mechanics Basics, Basics of Band structure
  • Prof. Saurabh Lodha – Advanced Transistors, CMOS Scaling, FinFET, 32 and 14 nm Process Technology, MOSFET,Scaling theories and Interconnect Scaling
  • Prof. Udayan Ganguly – Advanced Non volatile memories, Flash memories, Neuromorphic engineering introduction
  • Prof. Anil Kottantharayil – Photovoltaics

Lectures

ATTENDANCE of 80% was compulsory, failing which a DX grade was awarded.This course is not conducted by a single professor rather 5 different professors who take 2-4 lectures each except Professor Bhaskaran who taught major part of the course.

We were given a tour all the microelectronics lab in the annex building to show us the facilities available to us.

Exams

Project 25%

Quiz + Mini Assignment- 15%

Assignment I – 15%

End Sem – 45%

(There was no midsem , and only one quiz in the second half of the semester)

Assignment: The first assignment was based on Devices and Physics.It was a lengthy assignment and required time.Whereas the Mini Assignment had only one question regarding band structure of graphene and CNT that had been covered on lecture. These assignments were to be done using MATLAB to produce plots that are requested in them.(MATLAB needs to be learnt in the stipulated time you have to complete the assignment, help was provided by the professor in learning MATLAB)

Project: We had to prepare a report and presentation for a paper that we had to present in a seminar .The topic for that had to be chosen from the list given to us.The topics were based on the course content.

Endsem: Endsem was ONLY based on the portion taught by Professor Bhaskaran.The portion was very well defined with the books one could refer for help in a particular topic. If lectures were attended diligently and one did some self study the endsem would go smoothly .

Difficulty

Moderately difficult, Self Study is necessary for students.

Grading

Study Material and References

“Lessons from Nanoelectronics” by Supriyo Datta.

Quantum Transport by Supriyo Datta, Purdue University, Indiana

The above mentioned books are for Professor Bhaskaran’s topics.

Advanced Courses that can be taken up after this course

This course is not a hard prerequisite for any other course but will help decide which stream u want to choose or what further courses you want to take

Review by Riya Jain(riyarjain78@gmail.com)