Semiconductor Devices and Circuits

Prof. Aloke Dutta

Evolution of Intel processors?

Invention of Transistor?

It all started in 1947, when a point-contact transistor in germanium (Ge) was fabricated by Bardeen and Brattain.

Advantages of MOSFET over BJT?

The two biggest advantages that the MOSFETs enjoy over BJTs are lower power dissipation and smaller size

Why Si is mostly used in Semiconductor fabrication?

1. Si is abundant in the earth’s crust in the form of sand or silica (SiO2), thus, making it a cheap source material,

2. Nature has provided Si with a native oxide (SiO2), which is easy to grow by the process of thermal oxidation of Si and has excellent electrical and mechanical properties, e.g., it has reasonably high breakdown strength (typically 107 V/cm), good relative permittivity (er = 3.9), and very good matching of thermal expansion characteristics with Si, and

3. Si has a reasonably large band gap and consequently low leakage current, and is, thus, capable of high temperature applications.