Semiconductor Device Technology

This book is concerned with the fabrication, operation and performance of modern semiconductor devices, the term 'device' being used here to encompass both discrete devices such as transistors and integrated circuits. The material presented has developed from a series of lectures given to students of electronics in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Kingston Polytechnic over the past few years.
To become a competent engineer in hardware electronics, that is, to be able to use electronic devices in practice to produce reliable equipment capable of meeting required performance specifications, it is essential to have an adequate appreciation of the properties and limitations of available devices. Also, to make the circuit design process efficient, it is necessary to be able to analyse circuit performance theoretically so that the effect of modifications can be reliably predicted rather than relying on a haphazard 'trial and error' approach. An understanding of the fundamental physical processes responsible for the terminal properties of devices together with knowledge of the construction and method of manufacture provides a foundation for such work.
The objective during the preparation of the book was to provide comprehensive information on the operation and performance of semiconductor devices supported by consideration of the physical processes involved, to provide ways of representing the performance quantitatively in the form of a model enabling analysis of circuits using the devices and to describe the construction and fabrication processes.